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The    Church    Club    Lectures. 


New  and  cheaper  editions  in  cloth  binding. 
Price,  50  cents  each,  net. 

,888.— THE  HISTORY  AND  TEACHINGS  OF 
THE  EARLY  CHURCH,  as  a  Basis  for  the 
Re-Union  of  Christendom.  By  Bishops  Coxe  and 
Seymour,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Richey,  Garrison,  and 
Egar. 

1889.— THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 
Sketches  of  its  continuous  history  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  Restoration.  By  Bishops  Doane  and 
KiNGDON,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Hart,  Allen,  and  Gailor. 

1890.— THE  POST-RESTORATION  PERIOD  OF 
THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 
In  continuation  of  the  series  of  1889.  By  Bishops 
Perry  and  McLaren,  and  Rev.  Drs.  Mortimer, 
Richey,  and  Davenport. 


E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNG  &   CO., 
Cooper  Union,  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York. 


Catholic  Dogma 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  TRUTHS 

OF 

REVEALED  RELIGION 


.   Xectures 


DELIVERED     IN     189I    UNDER    THE     AUSPICES    OF    THE    CHURCH 
CLUB    OF    NEW    YORK 


NEW  YORK 
E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNG  &  CO. 

COOPER  UNION,  FOURTH   AVENUE 
1892 


lOAN  STACK 


Copyrighted,  1892, 
ByE.  &J   B.  YOUNG  &  CO. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE    I. 

PAGE 

THE  NATURE  OF  DOGMA  AND    ITS   OBLIGATION,      .      .         3 

The  Right  Rev.  A.  N.  Litilejohn,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Bishop  of  Long  Island. 

LECTURE   11. 

THE  HOLY  TRINITY, 37 

The  Rev.   W.  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Grace 
Church,  New  York. 

LECTURE   in. 

THE   INCARNATION, 67 

The  Rev.  Alfred  G.  Mortimer,  D.D.,  Rector  of  St. 
Mark's  Church,  Philadelphia. 

LECTURE   IV. 

THE  ATONEMENT, 95 

The  Rev.  John  H.  Elliott,   S.T.D.,  Rector  of  the 
Church  of  the  Ascension,   Washington. 

LECTURE    V. 

THE  OFFICE   AND  WORK   OF   THE   HOLY   SPIRIT,         .      .121 

The  Right  Rev.  Davis  Sessums,  D.  D. ,  Bishop  of 

Louisiana. 

LECTURE   VI. 

GRACE  AND  THE  SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM,        .      .      .      .    155 

By  tne  Rev.  G.  H.  S.   Walpole,  M.A.,  Professor  of 

Systematic  Divinity  and  Dogmatic  Theology 

in  the  General  Theological  Seminary, 


886 


INTRODUCTION. 


WHEN  Catholic  Dogma  is  mentioned 
there  are  those  who  ask,  is  it  worth 
while  to  spend  time  in  discussing  dogma 
when  there  is  so  much  work  to  be  done  ? 
Give  your  mind  and  your  labor,  they  say, 
to  the  rescue  and  help  of  the  wretched  and 
the  depraved,  the  sinful  and  the  unfortu- 
nate ;  go  and  practise  toward  them  that  love 
which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  ;  but  do  not 
waste  your  energies  upon  disputations  about 
creeds. 

Yet  the  Church  has  always  occupied 
itself  very  largely  with  dogma,  and  has 
strenuously  insisted  upon  the  importance  of 
it.  With  a  world  to  convert,  S.  Paul  filled 
his  letters  chiefly  with  dogma.  In  the  tre- 
mendous  decline   and    fall   of   the    Roman 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

empire,  and  wreck  of  civilization,  the  Church 
dwelt  on  dogma  perpetually,  and  the  Church 
was  in  earnest  then  as  now  to  convert  and 
save  the  world.  In  times  of  reformation 
not  only  is  righteousness  of  life  emphasized, 
but  the  faith  of  the  Church  is  scrutinized 
with  the  keenest  criticism.  How  does  it 
happen  that  at  specially  critical  times  dogma 
is  made  so  prominent  in  the  Church's  life  ? 
Inasmuch  as  it  is  the  peculiar  business  of  the 
Church,  among  all  the  institutions  in  the 
world,  to  teach  Christianity,  anything  that  it 
has  uniformly  held  to  be  matter  of  highest 
importance  has  a  strong  a  priori  claim  upon 
our  attention.  We  cannot  excuse  ourselves 
for  not  attending  to  it  by  saying  that  it  does 
not  interest  us.  If  it  be  important  it  is  our 
duty  to  attend  to  it.  If  it  make  any  dif- 
ference whether  we  believe  one  thing  or 
another,  we  are  bound  to  find  out  what  the 
truth  is  and  to  maintain  it. 

In  determining  whether  it  is  worth  while 
to  spend  our  time  in  studying  and  discussing 


NTRODUCTION.  vu 

the  dogmas  of  Christianity,  we  need  first  to 
see  clearly  what  Christianity  really  is.  If 
it  were  merely  a  system  of  conduct,  or  a 
system  of  conduct  and  worship,  much  might 
fairly  be  said  in  disparagement  of  creeds 
and  theology.  The  fulfilling  of  the  law  is 
love  to  God  and  love  to  man  ;  why  trouble 
ourselves  with  anything  more  ?  A  popular 
expression  of  the  day  is  that  Christianity  is 
a  life  and  not  a  doctrine  ;  therefore,  it  is 
urged,  let  us  devote  all  our  energies  to  right 
living  and  not  mind  the  disputations  of  the 
schools. 

But  this  view  misses  the  essence  of 
Christianity,  and  perceives  in  it  simply  one 
among  other  great  religions  of  mankind. 
Those  are  merely  systems  of  conduct  and 
worship,  the  best  methods  that  men  were  able 
to  devise  for  winning  that  favor  of  superior 
beings  which  has  been  universally  under- 
stood by  the  human  mind  to  be  necessary 
for  the  attainment  of  happiness.  They  are 
the  mature  products  of  that  wisdom  which 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

men  gained  from  the  tree  of  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  while  as  yet  they  had  found  no 
way  to  pass  the  angel  who  guarded  with  flam- 
ing sword  the  tree  of  life.  As  systems  of 
conduct  they  are,  in  some  instances  at  least, 
highly  successful.  Some  of  them  might  have 
been  refined  and  purified  and  have  served 
well  enough  as  a  rule  of  conduct ;  but  our 
Lord  refused  to  adopt  any  existing  system, 
because  His  aim  was  not  merely  to  promote 
conduct  and  worship,  but  also,  and  chiefly, 
to  impart  to  men  the  gift  that  He  came  to 
bring,  the  gift  of  life.  This  object  is  plainly 
declared  in  the  Scriptures :  as  S.  Paul  says, 
''The  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life."  ''This  is 
the  record,"  says  S.  John,  "that  God  hath 
given  unto  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is 
in  His  Son."  Christ  says,  "  For  this  cause 
came  I  into  the' world,  that  they  might  have 
life;"  and  "He  that  hath  the  Son  hath 
life  ;  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath 
not  life." 

How  to  gain  eternal  life  has   ever   been 


INTRODUCTION,  ix 

and  is  the  chief  concern  of  man.  Until 
Christ  came  it  was  sought  everywhere  in  the 
light  of  man's  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
and  the  only  way  that  man  had  ever  known 
was  the  way  of  righteousness,  the  only 
righteous  guide  conscience.  As  far  as  it 
went  the  law  of  conscience  did  indeed  point 
men  in  the  right  direction,  for  it  pointed  to- 
ward that  conduct  which  is  according  to  the 
law  of  love,  though  uncertainly  and  vaguely. 
But  the  experience  of  mankind  during  many 
ages  and  in  many  lands  gradually  convinced 
them  that  something  more  was  necessary. 
They  came  to  perceive  that  few  if  any  were 
able  to  practise  righteousness  effectually. 
The  verdict  of  the  thoughtful  and  wise 
was  that  there  is  none  that  is  righteous, 
no  not  one.  Moreover,  the  instinct  that 
craved  the  support  of  everlasting  arms  to 
uphold  human  weakness  in  the  storms  and 
crashes  of  existence  was  not  satisfied.  The 
gods  were  capricious,  and  so  unreliable  that 
men  came  to  deny  that  there  were  any  gods. 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

The  instinct  that  craves  sympathy  and  love 
found  no  response.  Plainly  something  was 
lacking  in  the  various  systems  of  righteous- 
ness practised  by  mankind.  Conduct  based 
upon  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  was  not 
saving  the  world,  was  not  securing  eternal 
life  for  man. 

Christ  disclosed  what  before  was  lacking, 
and  what  men  had  not  been  able  to  discover 
for  themselves.  He  confirmed  the  convic- 
tion that  eternal  life  is  not  inherent  in  human 
nature  and  is  not  acquired  by  conduct,  and 
showed  that  it  appertains  to  God  only,  and 
must  be  conveyed  from  God  to  each  in- 
dividual in  particular.  His  Gospel  is  that 
God  hath  given  us  eternal  life,  offering  it  to 
all  men,  and  providing  means  by  which  every 
man  has  opportunity  to  make  the  gift  his 
own. 

But  that  this  is  not  a  single  simple  fact  is 
evident  upon  slight  consideration.  Where 
is  that  life  situated  ?  Where  is  its  source  ? 
Where,  in  the  language  of  the  primeval  met- 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

aphor,  Is  the  tree  on  which  It  grows?  How 
does  It  get  into  us  ?  It  is  not  gained  by 
keeping  the  law  of  righteousness,  even  with 
the  selHng  of  all  that  one  has  and  giving  to 
the  poor,  as  Christ  declared  when  He  bade 
a  seeker  after  eternal  life  to  follow  Him. 
What  did  that  mean  ?  Not  simply  to  walk  in 
His  company  over  the  difhcult  roads  of  Pales- 
tine ;  not  merely  to  follow  His  example  of 
righteous  conduct :  beyond  these  things  it 
meant  that  to  gain  the  gift  of  life  he  must 
lose  his  own  life.  And  what  is  this  mystery 
of  losing  life  to  gain  life?  In  the  Sacrifice 
of  Calvary,  where  the  Son  of  Man  gave  up 
His  life  In  pain,  this  mystery  is  elucidated. 
But  what  Is  the  explanation  ?  Then,  having 
got  life  are  we  sure  to  keep  It?  How  shall 
we  keep  It  ? 

All  these,  and  many  more,  Inquiries 
meet  us  as  soon  as  we  ask  ourselves  what 
are  the  facts  about  this  gift  of  life.  What 
we  want  is  facts,  not  conjectures.  If  we  can 
only  speculate  about  them  we  should  have 


X 11  IN  TROD  UC  TION. 

known  as  much  if  Christ  had  not  come.  But 
Christ  has  revealed  the  facts.  They  were  not 
stated  by  Him  in  the  form  of  an  edict,  as 
the  ten  commandments  were  written  on  slabs 
of  stone,  but  they  were  imparted,  from  time 
to  time,  to  the  men  whom  He  chose  to  re- 
ceive His  teaching;  and  the  Church  was 
created  for  the  purpose,  among  other  things, 
of  perpetuating  and  disseminating  this 
teaching. 

The  accurate  statements  of  the  facts  so 
taught  are  called  dogmas. 

Considering  now  what  dogmas  are,  the 
disparagement  of  dogmatic  teaching — that  is, 
the  teaching  of  these  facts,  which  Christ  re- 
vealed, touching  the  way  to  get  eternal  life — 
implies  either  a  doubt  that  God  has  revealed 
to  us  the  way  of  life  or  an  inability  to  appre- 
ciate its  importance.  In  either  case  the  ne- 
cessity for  dogmatic  teaching  is  evident. 
For  these  facts  cannot  be  ignored.  If  we 
get  the  gift  of  eternal  life  by  being  united 
with  God,  clearly  we  do  not  make  it  for  our- 


INTRODUCTION.  Xlll 

selves  by  doing  righteousness.  The  law  of 
that  life  indeed  constrains  us  to  love  God 
and  man,  and  to  do  the  works  of  love,  and 
we  cannot  retain  the  gift  unless,  in  some 
measure,  we  live  by  its  law:  but  natural 
life  and  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  are 
the  conditions  for  the  practice  of  righteous- 
ness, and  sufficed  for  all  the  virtue  of  the 
ancient  world  ;  yet  the  world  without  Christ 
and  without  the  gift  of  life  tended  to  de- 
struction until  He  came  and  revealed  the 
gift. 

In  these  lectures  the  Church  Club  believes 
that  the  right  reverend  and  reverend  lecturers 
have  rendered  no  small  service  to  the  Church 
by  stating  so  lucidly  the  fundamental  facts 
of  Christianity,  as  they  have  been  revealed 
to  and  taught  by  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
witness  and  keeper  of  the  truth.  To  these 
learned  bishops  and  priests  the  Church  Club 
now  expresses  its  own  profound  obligation. 


Catbollc  Doama:  Ute  mature  anJ> 
©bligatlons. 


LECTURE   I. 

CA  THOLIC  DOGMA  :    ITS  NA  TURE  AND 
OBLIGA  TIONS. 

THE  RT.    REV.    A.    N.    LITTLEJOHN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Cantab. , 

Bishop  of  Long  Island. 

Before  entering  upon  the  discussion^  I  have 
two  general  remarks  to  make,  (i)  I  shall  speak 
to  believers  in  the  Church's  claim  to  the  posses- 
sion of  definite  and  certain  knowledge  of  the  es- 
sentials of  the  faith  which  it  was  commissioned 
to  teach.  As  for  unbelievers,  whose  doubts  and 
objections  cover  not  merely  this  claim  of  the 
Church,  but  also  anterior  questions  leading  up 
to  it,  even  the  existence  of  God  and  the  possi- 
bility of  His  Incarnation  and  Revelation  to  man 
— they  must  be  left  to  the  wider  range  of  evi- 
dence and  argument  for  Christianity  itself. 

(2)  Let  it  be  understood  once  for  all  that 
Catholic  dogma  does  not  fix  a  limit  to  the  op- 
erations of  reason  in  dealing  with  divine  truth. 
It  simply  asserts  the  existence  of  such  a  limit 
already  fixed  in  the  constitution  of  nature.    God 


4  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

himself  in  creating  things  as  we  find  them ;  not 
dogma,  which  simply  describes  them,  is  responsi- 
ble for  \)i\e:  fences  of  which  modern  reason  so  bit- 
terly complains. 

My  subject  is  not  dogma  in  general  and  as 
popularly  applied  to  all  formulated  religious 
truth,  but  Catholic  dogma,  which,  because  it  is 
Catholic,  is  restricted  to  Christian  verities  which 
bear  the  mint-stamp  of  the  whole  Body  of  Christ. 
A  dogma  to  be  Catholic  must  have  these  three 
essential,  invariable  notes. 

(i)  It  must  be  a  truth  positively  and  definitely 
stated. 

(2)  It  must  have  directly  or  by  necessary  in- 
ference, the  sure  warrant  of  Holy  Scripture. 

(3)  It  must  be  a  truth  which  has  been  duly  at- 
tested by  the  undivided  Church  speaking  through 
an  CEcumenical  Council,  and  subsequently  ac- 
cepted everywhere  and  by  all  in  Christendom. 
Such,  briefly,  are  the  signs  and  notes  of  Catholic 
Dogm.a.  Taken  together,  they  sufficiently  ex- 
plain its  nature. 

But  if  such  be  the  nature  of  Catholic  dogma, 
why  is  it  obligatory  ?  The  main  point  and  em- 
phasis of  the  subject  are  involved  in  the  answer 
to  this  question.  Obviously  the  first  and  chief 
ground  of  obligation  to  accept  Catholic  dogma 
is  the  authority  of  Holy  Scripture  on  whose  war- 
rant it  rests,  and  the  authority  of  the  Church 


ITS  NA  TURE  AND   OBLIGA  TIONS.  5 

constituted  and  ordained  by  its  Divine  Head  to 
be  the  supreme  witness  and  interpreter  of  Holy 
Scripture.  These  are  not  two  kinds  of  authority, 
but  rather  two  aspects  of  the  same  authority — 
even  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  equally  the  inspirer 
and  guide  of  those  who  at  sundry  times  and  in 
divers  manners  composed  the  written  record  of 
God's  Revelation  to  man,  and  of  the  living  Church 
appointed  to  be  the  keeper  and  witness  of  that 
record.  The  promise  of  Divine  guidance  was 
not  more  certainly  given  in  the  one  case  than  in 
the  other.  In  both  cases  the  promise  came  from 
the  same  source,  and  in  both  it  has  been  fulfilled 
through  the  same  instrumentality.  The  precise 
measure  of  the  guidance  in  either  case  is  an  idle 
question.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  in  each  it 
was  sufficient  for  the  end  to  be  attained.  For  if 
it  was  necessary  that  God  should  speak  to  man 
by  successive  revelations  which  were  to  be  made 
matters  of  permanent  record,  it  was  scarcely  less 
necessary  that  He  should  provide  a  witness  and 
keeper  of  the  record.  God  anticipated  what  ex- 
perience has  proved,  viz.,  that  we  need  not  only 
the  truth,  but  also  in  organic  connection  with  the 
truth  an  incorporated  and  living  witness  of  the 
truth  which  would  voice  its  meaning,  not  as  each 
individual  reason  might  apprehend  it,  but  rather 
as  the  divinely  guided  universal  reason  of  hu- 
manity would  apprehend  it.  Through  the  Holy 


6  CA7VI0LIC  DOGMA: 

Spirit,  God  in  Christ  gave  the  whole  of  saving 
truth  to  the  whole  of  humanity,  and  the  only 
divinely  authorized  and  final  interpreter  of  this 
saving  truth  is  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  through 
the  whole  of  regenerated  humanity — even  the 
very  Body  of  Christ  which  is  His  Church. 

I  have  said  that  Catholic  dogma  is  obligatory  be- 
cause it  rests  upon  the  twofold  authority  of  Holy 
Scripture  and  of  the  Church  as  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth.  But  this  twofold  authority 
may  be  reduced  to  the  yet  more  simple  and  ulti- 
mate authority  of  Christ  Himself,  who,  as  the 
eternal  Word  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  us, 
was,  and  is,  and  ever  shall  be  "  the  truth "  as 
well  as  "the  way  and  the  life."  As  such  He  is 
declared  by  Holy  Scripture  to  be  "  the  author 
and  finisher  of  our  faith."  But  if  Christ  be  the 
author  of  our  faith,  then  is  the  substance  of  what 
we  believe  in  Him  and  of  Him;  and  if  He  be  the 
finisher  of  our  faith,  then  do  the  essential  articles 
of  our  faith  derive  not  only  their  substance,  but 
also  their  form,  either  directly  from  Him,  or  in- 
directly from  instrumentalities  duly  appointed 
by  Him  to  complete  in  this  regard  what  He  be- 
gan— even  the  Scriptures  as  the  record  of  His 
Mediatorial  work,  the  Holy  Ghost  who  was  to 
bring  all  things  He  had  taught  to  the  mind  of 
the  Church,  and  the  Church  itself  as  the  embo- 
died historic  witness  of  His  continuous  presence 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  7 

among  men.  If  this  be  true,  then  it  follows  that 
every  dogma  which  can  prove  its  derivation  from 
the  concurrent  action  of  these  three  witnesses  to 
the  mind  of  Christ  can  justly  claim  not  only  to 
be  Catholic,  but  to  be  a  veritable  transcript  of 
the  mind  of  Christ.  For  what  our  Lord  said  in 
His  own  person  and  what  He  said  through 
channels  of  His  own  selection,  are  all  of  one 
piece  as  to  substance,  form,  and  authority. 

In  these  days  of  unsettled  and  contradictory 
teaching  as  to  the  authenticity  and  genuineness 
of  considerable  portions  of  the  Sacred  Writings, 
and  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  other  portions  ad- 
mitted to  be  authentic  and  genuine;  and  also  as 
to  many  fundamental  matters  affecting  the  being 
and  constitution  of  the  Church — surely  it  is  a 
great  comfort  that  we  are  able  to  trace  the  foun- 
dation of  Catholic  dogma  down  to  the  bed-rock 
of  the  authority  of  our  eternal  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King,  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  Lord  over  all, 
the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  But  to 
return  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  Church  in  virtue 
of  whose  authority,  as  commonly  cited.  Catholic 
dogma  may  righly  claim  to  be  binding,  there  are 
some  points  to  be  considered  which,  if  not  new, 
are  always  important  to  remember  whenever  the 
theme  now  before  us  is  under  discussion.  Cath- 
olic dogma  tightens  or  loosens  its  hold  on  many 
minds  according  to  the  prevailing  fashion  of  relig- 


8  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

ious  inquiry  and  criticism — a  fashion  which,  like 
other  fashions  in  every-day  Hfe,  never  continues 
long  in  one  stay.  Just  now  the  Scriptures  are 
being  tried  as  by  fire.  With  some  their  authority 
in  all  save  morals  seems  to  be  on  the  decline. 
With  others  the  difficulty  and  uncertainty  in  reach- 
ing settled  and  definite  conclusions  by  the  induc- 
tive or  exegetical  method  of  study  appear  to  be 
growing  more  and  more  formidable.  Not  a  few 
critics  and  scholars,  working  on  their  own  indi- 
vidual lines  under  the  influence  of  the  new  learn- 
ing and  of  the  renaissance  theology,  set  forth 
with  increasing  boldness  their  doubts  as  to 
whether  or  no  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 
exhibit  any  real  traces  of  a  divinely  authorized 
organization  of  the  Church ;  and  further,  as  to 
whether  or  no  the  formulated  dogmatic  teaching 
largely  introduced  by  Nicene  Christianity  had 
any  adequate  warrant  in  the  recorded  teaching 
of  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles.  The  drift  of  the 
so-called  advanced  criticism  seems  to  be  toward 
not  merely  the  disparagement,  but  the  elimina- 
tion from  the  Scriptures  of  the  material  of  dog- 
matic teaching;  and  to  find  in  them  only  duties, 
sentiments,  aspirations  which  are  sufificiently  .ex- 
pressed by  a  creedless  faith,  a  creedless  worship, 
a  creedless  hope  of  eternal  life,  and  a  creedless 
spiritual  society.  The  transition  from  such 
views  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  like  ones  of  the 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS,  9 

Church  is  easy  and  natural.  The  logic,  the  criti- 
cism, the  speculative,  individualistic  temper  of 
mind  that  issue  in  such  low  estimates  of  the  au- 
thority and  value  of  Holy  Writ  make  quick  work 
with  the  authority  of  the  Church  on  all  matters 
of  dogma.  In  this  widespread  tendency  of  our 
time  we  have  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  popular 
but  philosophically  false  axiom  that  nothing  is 
true,  nothing  is  obligatory  that  does  not  prove 
itself  to  be  so  to  the  individual  mind  regarded  as 
the  ultimate  court  of  appeal."^ 

As  the  limits  of  this  discourse  will  compel  me  to 
drop  many  links  in  the  chain  of  argument,  I  shall 
assume  the   Divine  authority  of  the   Scriptures 

*  Protagoras,  the  best  known  of  the  Athenian  sophists,  was  the 
first  to  assert  as  a  principle  of  philosophy,  that  "  Man  is  the 
measure  of  all  things. "  "Just  as  each  thing  appears  to  each  man, 
so  it  is  to  him."  All  truth  is  relative.  He  taught  this  as  a  nec- 
essary corollary  from  the  doctrine  of  sensation  as  the  source  of 
knowledge.  "  Man  the  measure  of  all  things"  is  the  dominant 
principle — the  distinctive  characteristic  of  modern  Rationalism  in 
all  its  criticisms  and  judgments  on  the  truth  of  Revealed  Religion. 

Maurice  in  his  "  Kingdom  of  Christ"  shows  how  this  principle 
works  among  a  large  number  of  Christian  people. 

"  Protestants  say  that  every  truth  is  to  be  realized  by  each  man 
for  himself,  and  that  when  a  certain  number  of  individuals  have 
been  made  conscious  of  the  same  truth,  they  are  to  meet  together 
and  have  fellowship  in  the  profession  of  it ;  they  have  never 
effectually  taught  men  that  there  are  truths  appertaining  to  them 
as  men,  which  do  not  depend  for  their  reality  upon  our  conscious- 
ness of  them,  but  are  the  grounds  on  which  the  consciousness 
must  rest"  (vol,  i.,  p.  193). 


lo  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

as  a  necessary  constituent  of  Catholic  dogma, 
and  will  pass  on  at  once  to  speak  of  the  Divine  au- 
thority of  the  Church — the  second  necessary  con- 
k  stituent  of  Catholic  dogma.  I  do  so,  not  because 
the  latter  is  of  more  importance,  but  simply  be- 
cause there  are  so  many  who  accept  the  authority 
of  the  written  record,  and  yet  deny  the  authority 
of  the  Church.  Let  me,  then,  ask  you  to  recall 
some  of  the  facts — not  opinons  or  speculations — 
that  establish  and  explain  the  office  of  the  Church 
in  the  evolution  and  formulation  of  Catholic 
dogma.  Let  it  be  granted  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contain  all  things  necessary  to  salvation; 
yet  with  the  light  thrown  upon  the  subject  by 
all  Christian  history,  it  must  also  be  granted 
that  in  order  to  be  assured  of  a  correct  state- 
ment of  these  necessary  things  it  is  equally  need- 
ful to  have  the  testimony  of  a  living  and  contin- 
uous witness  ordained  of  Christ,  and  therefore 
possessed  of  authority  transcending  that  of  any 
individual  judgment,  which  shall  set  forth  in 
their  due  proportion  and  in  their  vital  connec- 
tion with  other  revealed  truths  these  same  neces- 
sary things.  Always  and  everywhere  to  be  re- 
membered, this  fact  has  now  a  special  force.  For 
several  generations  after  the  Reformation  the 
favorite  shibboleth  with  multitudes  was  "the 
Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,  the  religion  of  Protest- 
ants "—a  cry  that  was  meant  to  affirm  that  the 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  II 

Bible  is  its  own  sufficient  witness  and  interpreter, 
and  that  there  is  and  can  be  no  need  to  go  outside 
of  it  for  a  certain  knowledge  of  its  meaning. 
The  first  shattering  blow  to  this  once  popular 
watchword  came  from  the  unsettling  and  contra- 
dictory handling  of  the  Scriptures  by  rival 
schools  of  learned  interpreters,  which  had  been 
nursed  into  power  by  an  ultra  use  of  the  private 
judgment  principle* — every  man  his  own  inter- 
preter. The  fruits  of  this  principle  have  now 
a  bitter  taste  throughout  Christendom,  and  the 
one  chiefly  characteristic  religious  movement  of 
the  time — that  for  the  restoration  of  Christian 
unity — is  at  once  a  protest  and  a  reaction  against 
them.  It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  there 
must  have  been  something  radically  wrong  in  a 
method  of  arriving  at  truth  whose  logical  result 
was  the  vast  brood  of  modern  sects. 

*  What  is  said  here  is  not  intended  to  question  the  right  and 
duty  oi private  jiidginent,  properly  understood.  It  is  the  duty  of 
every  Christian  to  search  the  Scriptures  in  order  to  learn  from 
them  God's  will.  Yet  this  does  not  weaken,  far  less  supersede, 
the  obligation  of  individuals  to  defer  to  the  judgment  of  the  whole 
Church;  nor  does  it  deprive  the  Church  of  its  inherent  right  to 
form  a  judgment.  As  has  been  well  said,  "  It  is  the  duty  of  every 
citizen  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  laws  of  his  country  and  to  en- 
deavor to  render  them  an  intelligent  obedience;  yet  this  does  not 
take  away  from  a  competent  tribunal  the  right  of  pronouncing 
judgment  according  to  those  laws; "  nor,  it  may  be  added,  does  it 
relieve  the  citizen  from  the  obligation  to  accept  and  obey  such 
judgment  when.it  has  been  duly  pronounced. 


12  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

But  a  still  more  telling  blow  to  this  notion — 
every  man  for  himself  in  dealing  with  God's  Word 
— was  yet  to  come  from  the  aggressive  school  of 
the  new  criticism.     The  great  multitude  who  had 
been  reared  under  the  influence  of  the  maxim  "  the 
Bible  alone  the  religion  of  Protestants,"  have  not 
now,  under  the  encroachments  of  this  criticism, 
where  to  lay  their  heads.    Rightly  or  wrongly  this 
new  criticism  has  so  far  breached  the  old  tradition 
about  the  plenary  and  verbal  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  especially  about  the  authorship, 
composition,  and  chronology  of  certain  books  of 
the  Sacred  Canons  as  to  have  quite  swept  away 
the.  once   unchallenged  idolatry  of   the  text  of 
Scripture.     The  effect  of  all  this  has  been  to  con- 
sign to  the  bats  and  owls  the  old  cry  about  the 
sufficiency  of  a  book  religion,  and  to  substitute 
for  it  another  which  puts  the  emphasis  of  trust 
not  in  what  the  Book  says,  but  in  what  the  per- 
sonal Christ  says — thus  pushing  back  the  ground 
of  belief  from  the  written  record  to  the  person- 
ality of  Christ.     But  here — assuming  that  there 
are  only  two   factors  in  the  field — the  historic 
record  of  Christ's  teaching  and  the  individual  in- 
terpreter of  that  teaching,  a  new  crux  presents 
itself.     For  now  the  question  emerges.  Who  and 
what  was  the  Christ  ?     What  think  ye  of  Him  ? 
A  large  number  of  private  judgment  critics  differ 
about  the  answer  to  this  question  just  as  radi- 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  13 

cally  as  they  differed  about  the  meaning  of  other 
facts  and  teachings  of  trie  Holy  Scriptures.  And 
so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  multitudes  to-day  are 
doubting  whether  the  Christ  whom  they  are  to 
accept  is  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  as  set  forth  in 
the  creed  of  Nicea,  or  the  Christ  of  any  one  of 
the  four  great  heresies,*  or  the  Christ  evolved 
from  the  rationalistic  amalgam  of  modern  specula- 
tion. It  is  before  the  irresistible  pressure  of 
these  facts  that  the  larger  part  of  the  sober  and 
thoughtful  Christianity  of  the  day  is  fast  re- 
treating once  more  to  the  solid  ground  of  Catho- 

*  "  There  are  but  four  things  which  concern  to  make  complete 
the  whole  state  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ:  his  deity,  his  manhood, 
the  conjunction  of  both,  and  the  distinction  of  the  one  from  the 
other  being  joined  in  one.     Four  principal  heresies  there  are  which 
in  those  things  have  withstood  the   truth.     Arians,  by  banding 
themselves  against  the  deity  of  Christ;  Apollinarians  by  maiming 
and  misinterpreting  that  which  belongeth  to  his  human  nature; 
Nestorians,  by  rending  Christ  asunder  and  dividing  him  into  two 
persons;   the  followers  of  Eutychus,  by  confounding  in  his  person 
those  natures  which  they  should  distinguish.      In   four  words, 
truly,  perfectly,  indevisably,  distinctly;  the  first  applied  to  his  being 
God,  and  the  second  to  his  being  man,  the  third  to  his  being  of 
both  One,  and  the  fourth  to  his  still  continuing  in  that  one  Roth; 
we  may  fully,  by  way  of  abridgment,  comprise  whatever  antiquity 
hath  at  large  handled  either  in  declaration  of  Christian  belief,  or 
in  refutation  of   the  aforesaid  heresies,  within   the  compass  of 
which  four  heads  I  may  truly  affirm  that  all  heresies  which  touch 
but  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  whether  they  have  risen  in  these 
late  years  or  in  any  age  heretofore,  may  be  with  great  facility 
brought  to  confine  themselves."  Hooker's"  Ecclesiastical  Polity," 
bk,  v.,  oh.  liv.,  sect.  10. 


14  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

He  dogma — the  Holy  Sqriptures  as  voiced  and 
formulated  by  the, Catholic  Church  in  the  ages  of 
its  unbroken  unity. 

With  these  preliminary  considerations  fixed 
in  our  thoughts,  we  are  now  prepared  to  pass 
in  review  the  grounds  of  the  Church's  authority 
and  competency  for  the  task  of  setting  forth  the 
faith  once  delivered.  And  here  let  it  be  re- 
membered that  whatever  the  extent  of  this  au- 
thority and  competency,  precisely  the  same  is 
the  extent  of  our  obligation  to  accept  what  she 
teaches  out  of  God's  Word.  Whence,  then,  and 
what  is  the  Church  ?  It  were  attempting  more 
than  my  space  will  allow  to  quote  in  detail 
all  that  the  Scriptures  tell  us  on  the  subject. 
Their  language  throbs  with  a  profoundly  mysti- 
cal, but  logically  real,  meaning.  Reason,  feel- 
ing, imagination  are  tasked  to  the  uttermost  to 
express  the  depth  and  intensity  of  their  concep- 
tion of  the  Body  of  Christ.  If  anything  in  them 
is  declared  to  be  absolutely  of  God  and  not  of 
man,  it  is  the  Church.  It  was  the  fulfilment 
of  his  purpose,  the  creation  of  his  will,  the 
revelation  of  his  wisdom  and  love.  The  Church's 
life  is  the  embodied  life  of  God  in  Christ  speak- 
ing by  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Church's  faith  is 
the  truth  of  God  in  Christ  made  known  to  man 
through  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Church's  moral 
power,  when  at  its  best,  is  the  moral  power  of 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  15 

the  perfect  righteousness  of  God  in  Christ  com- 
mended to  every  man's  conscience  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  If  it  be  a  body  of  many  members,  it  is 
one  with  its  Head.  If  it  be  a  growth,  it  is  one 
with  the  grower.  If  it  be  a  building,  it  is  one 
with  the  builder.  If  it  be  the  bride  of  Christ,  it 
is  eternally  one  with  the  Bridegroom.  It  is  not  a 
construction  put  together  piece  by  piece  even 
by  the  Divine  will,  but  rather  in  its  ultimate  idea 
a  spiritual  generation  and  outbirth  of  the  God- 
head who  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us. 
Given  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Church 
followed  as  a  vital  organic  sequence.  But  if 
Christ  as  the  Head  of  the  Church  could  so  imbue 
it  with  His  own  personality  as  to  make  it  the 
continued  manifestation  of  Himself  among  men, 
it  is  only  natural  to  expect  that  He  would  so 
order  its  organization  and  work  as  to  show  forth 
in  them  through  the  ages  all  His  essential  gifts 
and  functions — even  His  power  of  regeneration 
and  santification  by  His  Word  and  Sacraments 
— His  power  to  teach  and  rule — His  power  as 
the  logos  to  give  enduring  form  to  the  truth.  It 
was  in  fact  the  Church's  possession  of  these  sev- 
eral powers  by  derivation  and  commission  that 
imparted  to  it  its  supreme  authority  under 
Christ  as  the  keeper  and  witness  of  what  had 
been  taught  by  Himself  and  His  Apostles.  Now 
let  it  be  understood  that,  in  the  many  references 


1 6  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

in  the  Scriptures  to  this  authority  as  an  indubit- 
able fact,  we  are  to  look  not  so  much  for  explicit 
directions  for  its  exercise,  as  for  recognition  of 
its  existence  and  of  its  practical  use  in  formulat- 
ing the  truth  committed  to  its  keeping.  The 
Church  is  made  up  of  men,  and  yet  it  is  so  made  of 
men  as  to  be  the  Body  of  Christ,  the  very  habita- 
tion of  His  Spirit.  It  is  at  once  divine  and 
human ;  *'  certainly  infallible  because  of  the  divine 
and  as  certainly  infallible  because  of  the  union  of 
the  human  with  the  divine — the  human  not  iner- 
rable in  itself,  but  only  as  the  organ  and  manifes- 
tation of  the  divine.*'  The  human  is  so  taken  up 
into  the  living  Christ  and  permeated  by  His 
Spirit  that,  though  its  voice  continues  to  be  hu- 
man, its  message  is  divine;  and,  because  divine, 
at  once  infallible  and  universal.  This  view  of 
the  Church  is  a  necessary  inference  from  the  In- 
carnation. Christ  became  man  that  He  might 
mediate  between  man  and  God.  He  did  so  me- 
diate during  His  personal  ministry  on  earth,  and 
afterward  through  the  Church  which  is  His  Body, 
and,  because  His  Body,  the  continuation  of  His 
mediatorial  work  in  history.  It  was  to  the  Apos- 
tles and  through  them  to  the  universal  Epis- 
copate, the  official  representative  of  His  Body, 
that  Christ  said,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world ;  "*  *'  The  Comforter,  the 

*  St.  Matthew,  28:20. 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  17 

Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my 
Name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all 
things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have 
said  unto  you."  "^  And  then,  as  if  to  shov/  how 
completely  the  members  of  the  Body  share  all 
things  with  the  Head,  there  is  His  prayer,  **  I  in 
them  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made 
perfect  in  one."f  How  these  promises  were  re- 
garded— how  the  Church,  as  deriving  upon  itself 
the  authority  of  its  Head  as  the  keeper  and  wit- 
ness of  the  truth,  was  understood  at  the  very 
sunrise  of  its  being  and  amid  the  freshly  knit 
bonds  of  Christ  and  His  Body,  we  have  ample 
proof  in  the  infallibility  assumed  as  matter  of 
course  by  the  Synod  of  Jerusalem,  at  which  all 
the  Apostles  were  present.  That  **  it  seemed 
good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us  "  was  esteemed 
the  sufficient  warrant  for  promulgating  its  de- 
crees as  certain  truth.  It  was  the  whole  Church 
that  spoke  in  that  first  Council ;  and  whenever,  in 
subsequent  Councils,  the  whole  Church  has  spoken 
substantially  the  same  claim  has  been  made  and  in 
the  same  way.  The  guiding  presence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  has,  in  every  case,  been  accounted  the  de- 
termining factor  in  the  work  done ;  and  no  dogma 
has  ever  been  reckoned  Catholic  that  did  not 
bear  the  seal  of  the  Spirit  of  all  truth  as  affixed 
by  the  synodical  action  of  the  Church,  attesting 

*  St.  John,  14:26.  f  St.  John,  17:  23. 

2 


l8  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

thereby  the  fundamental  rule  of  Catholic  con- 
sent— semper^  tibique  et  ab  omnibus.  Strangely 
enough  there  is,  in  some  quarters,  a  disposition 
to  drop  out  the  semper  as  a  necessary  element  in 
a  truly  Catholic  consent.  It  is  claimed  that  a 
dogma  held  everywhere  and  by  all  at  any  given 
time  implies  that  it  has  always  been  held.  This 
breach  in  the  logic  of  the  ancient  rule  seems  in- 
tended to  make  room  for  the  introduction  to-day 
as  Catholic  dogmas  of  what  aforetime  were  only 
matters  of  opinion — a  breach,  be  it  remembered, 
through  which  the  Latin  Church  seeks  to  drive 
the  Vatican  decrees  of  1854  and  1870.  And  yet 
the  rule  as  thus  mutilated  would  not  benefit 
Rome  unless  she  could  first  establish  her  claim 
to  be  the  Catholic  Church — a  thing  impossible. 
It  is  of  the  last  importance  that  we  stand  fast 
upon  the  ancient  rule  in  its  integrity.  Not 
merely  general  consent  at  any  one  time  is  de- 
manded, but  also  continuous  consent  embracing 
the  witness  of  the  undivided  Church,  and,  as  far 
as  may  be,  that  of  the  faithful  in  all  the  follow- 
ing ages.  Inerrancy  is  not  the  gift  of  any  indi- 
vidual Church,  national  or  provincial,  but  of  the 
Church  as  a  whole.  In  the  words  of  our  XIX. 
Article,  '*  As  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  Alexan- 
dria, and  Antioch  hath  erred,  so  also  the  Church 
of  Rome  hath  erred,  not  only  in  their  living  and 
manner   of   ceremonies^  but  also  in   matters  of 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  19 

faith."  But  further,  if  the  Church  Catholic  be 
indefectible,  as  our  Lord  declared  it  to  be,  when 
He  said,  "  the  gates  of  hell  shall  never  prevail 
against  it,"  then  it  follows  that  there  must  be  a 
sense  in  which  it  is  infallible.  For  if  it  is  never 
to  fail  it  must  be  endowed  with  all  power  and 
authority  needful  to  the  preservation  of  the  truth 
on  which  its  own  life  depends.  But  the  preser- 
vation of  the  truth  involves  a  power  and  au- 
thority for  defining  the  truth  against  errors  which 
the  Church's  Divine  Head  alone  can  give.  In 
only  two  ways  would  it  be  possible  for  the  Church 
to  fail.  It  might  perish  by  the  apostasy  or  death 
of  all  its  members,  or  it  might  perish  by  the 
lapse  of  all  Christians  into  heresy.  But  in  neither 
of  these  ways  can  it  perish,  if  the  promise  of  its 
Head  be  true.  Its  indefectibility  is  an  estab- 
lished supernatural  fact,  but  it  is  so  only  to 
the  extent  that  it  is  able  to  maintain  an  infalli- 
ble guardianship  over  the  revealed  verities  which 
are  the  fountain  of  its  life  and  the  charter  of  its 
work.  Still  further,  if  the  Church,  like  its  Lord, 
be  in  all  its  essentials  the  same  yesterday,  to- 
day, and  forever,  then  as  it  began  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  so  in  respect  of  these  essentials  it  has 
continued  to  this  day.  And  since  it  does  not 
claim  to  have  received  any  new  revelation  of 
truth,  so  neither  can  it  claim  authority  to  add 
any  new  dogma  to  the  faith  once  delivered  to 


20  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

the  saints.  The  infallibility  of  the  Catholic 
Church  does  not,  as  falsely  claimed  for  itself  by 
the  Latin  Church,  involve  the  power  to  intro- 
duce new  saving  truth,  or  to  translate  pious 
opinions  into  obligatory  dogmas ;  but  is  restricted 
to  defining  and  promulgating  what  has  been  held 
from  the  beginning.  The  Church  is  an  infallible 
witness  and  keeper  of  an  original  deposit,  not  an 
infallible  discoverer  of  what  was  before  unknown. 
If  what  God  has  revealed  seems  to  grow,  the 
growth  is  not  in  itself,  but  simply  in  our  human 
apprehension  of  it.  The  mind  of  man  grows,  not 
God's  message. 

And  just  here,  as  another  important  step  in 
the  argument,  it  should  be  understood  that  we 
cannot  properly  appreciate  the  office  of  the 
Church  as  the  keeper  and  expounder  of  the 
Catholic  faith  unless  we  give  due  weight  to  the 
following  well-attested  historic  fact.  The  origin 
and  first  establishment  of  Christianity  were 
by  the  preaching  of  living  men  commissioned 
to  proclaim  it.  There  is  a  vague 'notion  that 
Christianity  was  taken  from  the  New  Testament. 
This  is  historically  untrue.  Christianity  in  fact 
was  widely  extended  through  the  world  be- 
fore the  New  Testament  was  written,  and  its 
several  books  were  successively  addressed  to  va- 
rious bodies  of  Christian  believers,  who  already 
possessed    the    faith    of    Christ   in   its    integrity. 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.       ■      21 

"  When,  indeed,  God  ceased  to  inspire  persons  to 
write  these  books,  and  when  they  wera  all  col- 
lected by  the  Church  in  what  we  call  the  New 
Testament,  the  already  existing  faith  of  the 
Church  derived  from  oral  teaching  was  tested  by 
comparison  with  the  Inspired  record ;  and  it 
henceforth  became  the  standing  rule  of  the 
Church  that  nothing  should  be  received  as  neces- 
sary to  salvation  which  could  not  stand  that  test." 
But  still  though  thus  tested  by  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Christianity  is  not  taken  from  it;  for  it  ex- 
isted before  it.  What,  then,  was  the  Christianity 
that  was  thus  established  before  the  New  Testa- 
ment writings  appeared  ?  Have  we  any  record  of 
it  as  it  existed  before  the  New  Testament  be- 
came the  sole  authoritative  standard  ?  I  answer : 
the  creeds  of  the  Christian  Church  are  the  record 
of  it.  That  is  precisely  what  they  purport  to  be ; 
not  documents  taken  from  the  New  Testament, 
but  documents  transmitting  to  us  the  faith  as 
it  was  held  from  the  beginning — "  the  faith  as  it 
was  preached  by  inspired  men,  before  inspired 
men  put  forth  any  writings;"  the  Faith  once 
and  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints.  Accordingly, 
you  will  find  that  this  Church  in  her  VIII.  Article 
does  not  ground  the  affirmation  that  the  creeds 
ought  to  be  "thoroughly  received  and  believed;" 
on  the  fact  "  that  they  were  taken  out  of  the 
New  Testament  (which  they  were  not) ;  but  on 


22  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

the  fact  that  they  may  be  proved  by  most  certain 
warrants  of  Holy  Scripture."  The  Church,  then, 
was  first  the  keeper  and  witness  of  the  creeds 
containing  all  essential  truths;  and  afterward 
the  keeper  and  witness  of  the  New  Testament 
writings,  by  which  in  the  generations  to  come 
these  creeds  were  to  be  tested  and  proved ;  and 
she  is  divinely  declared  to  be  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth  because  she  is  the  keeper  and 
witness  of  both.  These  indisputable  facts  go  a 
long  way  toward  explaining  and  establishing  the 
peculiar  authority  which  attaches  to  Catholic 
consent — -the  settled  and  determinate  voice  of 
the  whole  Church  in  the  formulation  and  promul- 
gation of  Divine  truth.*  But  whatever  this  au- 
thority in  kind  or  in  degree,  in  accordance  with  a 
fundamental  rule  of  Catholic  practice,  it  has  al- 
ways been  exercised  through  General  Councils. 
It  is  important,  therefore,  to  have  clear  views  not 
only  of  the  authority  itself,  but  also  of  the  organ 
through  which  it  has  spoken.  Now  though  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  terms  general,  universal, 
CEcumenical  are  the  same,  yet  the  term  CEcu- 
menical  has  been  declared  by  usage  to  mean  "  a 

*  "  So  complete  is  the  historical  acceptance  of  the  creeds,  and 
their  consecration  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Church,  that  there 
is  at  least  as  clear  a  presumption  that  we  are  uncatholic  in  differ- 
ing from  them  as  there  would  be  that  we  were  unscientific  if  we 
dissented  from  the  most  universally  accepted  faiths  of  science." — 
R.  C.  MOBERLY,  Lux  Mundiy  p,  243, 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  2$ 

General  Council,  lawful,  approved,  and  received 
by  all  the  Church."  A  council  may  be  general 
without  being  lawful;  to  be  general,  all  the 
bishops  of  the  world  should  be  summoned  to  it, 
and  no  one  excluded  save  the  heretical  and  ex- 
communicated. This  rule  was  absolutely  observed 
in  none  of  the  so-called  General  Councils,  and  only 
a  minority  of  bishops  sat  in  most  of  them.  To  be 
lawful  and  truly  CEcumenical  it  is  necessary  that 
all  that  occurs  should  be  done  regularly  (which 
was  not  the  case  with  some  of  the  General 
Councils),  and  that  the  Church  at  large  should  ac- 
cept its  decrees,  as  was  done  with  those  of  the 
Councils  of  Nice,  Constantinople,  Ephesus  and 
Chalcedon.  That  a  General  Council  be  accepted, 
it  is  not  required  that  all  the  faithful  individually 
considered  acquiesce  in  its  action.  It  suffices  for 
the  purpose  that  all  branches  of  the  Church  do 
so  in  their  corporate  capacity."^  We  know  that 
there  have  been  Councils  general  in  their  convo- 
cation, but  not  so  in  their  acts  and  results.  It 
follows,  then,  that  "  while  the  Church  is  in  her 
present  divided  condition,  local  churches  must 
confine  themselves  to  making  local  decrees. 
Such  local  decrees  may  hereafter,  either  by  the 
approval  of  the  whole  Church  become  part  of 

*  On  the  authority  of  General  Councils,  see  Palmer  "On the 
Church,"  partiv.,  chap.  8  ;  also  Browne  "On  the  Twenty-first 
Article." 


24  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

the  Church's  living  teaching,  or  undergo  a  certain 
modification  in  order  to  secure  such  approval." 
There  is  no  agreement  as  to  the  number  of  truly 
CEcumenical  Councils.  "  The  Anglican  Church, 
in  some  of  her  documents,  refers  to  St.  Gregory's 
four;  in  others,  to  six.  The  Greek  Church  holds 
eight;  though  Barlaam  in  A.D.  1339,  treating  with 
Benedict  XII.,  mentions  only  six.*  The  Latin 
Church  does  not  agree  with  itself  on  the  subject 
• — some  of  its  doctors  counting  twenty-one,  and 
some  considerably  less."f  Though  I  have  spoken 

*  Palmer,  vol.  ii.,  p.  203  ;  Bp.  Forb^,  p.  300. 

\  In  view  of  what  has  been  said,  it  may  be  asked  of  what  prac- 
tical use  are  Universal  Synods  ;  and  what  authority  are  we  to 
assign  them  ?  Certainly  these  are  pertinent  questions  when  it  is 
admitted,  as  it  must  be,  that  no  one  of  the  four  or  six  so-called 
CEcumenical  Councils  actually  conformed  to  the  conditions  de- 
clared to  be  necessary  to  the  complete  constitution  and  work  of  an 
CEcumenical  Council ;  i.  e. ,  that  all  bishops  in  regular  standing- 
must  be  duly  summoned,  that  at  least  a  large  majority  must  be 
present,  and  that  all  things  must  be  lawfully  and  regularly  done. 

The  answer  is  (and  we  give  it  in  the  words  of  Browne  and  sub- 
stantially of  Beveridge  and  Forbes  on  the  Articles):  "So  far  as 
General  Councils  speak  the  language  of  the  Universal  Church  and 
are  accredited  by  the  Church ,  so  far  they  have  the  authority  inher- 
ent in  the  Church  of  deciding  in  controversies  of  faith.  Now  we 
can  only  know  that  they  speak  the  language  of  the  Church  when 
their  decrees  meet  with  universal  acceptance  by  the  whole  Church. 
Every  General  Council  which  has  received  this  stamp  to  its  decisions 
may  be  esteemed  to  speak  the  language  of  the  Universal  Church  ; 
and,  as  in  most  cases,  the  judgment  of  the  Universal  Church  could 
not  otherwise  be  elicited,  therefore  we  must  admit  their  importance 
and  necessity.     Now  the  first  six,  or,  at  least,  the  first  four  Gen-? 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS  25 

at  large  of  the  Church's  relation  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  it  may  be  well  to  say  a  word  about 
the  specific  relation  to  them  that  General  Coun- 

eral  Councils,  have  received  this  sanction  of  universal  consent  to 
their  decisions.  Their  decrees  were  sent  round  throughout  the 
Christian  world  and  were  approved  by  all  the  national  churches  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  The  errors  condemned  by  them  were 
then,  and  ever  have  been,  accounted  heresies;  and  the  creeds  set 
forth  by  them  have  been  acknowledged,  reverenced,  and  con- 
stantly repeated  in  the  liturgy  by  every  orthodox  church  from 
that  time  to  this.  Thus,  then,  the  true  General  Synods  have  re- 
ceived an  authority  which  they  had  not  in  themselves,"  I  may 
venture  to  add  that  the  underlying  essential  point  to  be  deter- 
mined is  not  the  precise  amount  of  authority  to  be  attributed  to 
General  Councils,  but  the  existence  of  such  authority  in  the  Church 
in  some  form,  as  enabled  it  to  set  forth,  whenever  required, 
obligatory  definitions  of  the  faith. 

A  question  has  been  raised  as  to  the  authority  of  conciliary  de- 
cisions, because  the  ages  of  councils  were  uncritical  ages.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  they  were  not  convened  for  purposes  of  criti- 
cism ;  but  to  collect,  harmonize,  and  formulate  the  testimony  of 
all  branches  of  the  Church  as  to  its  own  original  deposit  of  faith. 
The  issues  they  were  called  to  decide  were  issues  of  historic  fact, 
whose  final  appeal  was  to  the  witness,  from  the  beginning,  of  the 
continuous  and  universal  consciousness  of  the  Church.  "What  we 
understand  by  criticism,  with  its  complex  apparatus  of  investiga- 
tion and  its  professional  experts,  would  have  been  out  of  place  in 
the  councils.  The  qualities  needed  were  in  the  main  those 
which  belong  to  an  intelligent,  clear-headed,  honest  jury,  whose 
chief  business  it  is  to  give  a  verdict  upon  the  facts  presented.  The 
councils  declared  the '  meaning  and  force  of  certain  absolutely 
proven  facts,  and  the  only  pertinent  question  is  whether  they 
were  right  or  wrong  in  their  judgment.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
they  were  sure  what  they  meant,  and  just  as  little  that  they  ex- 
pressed with  perfect  clearness  what  they  meant. 


26  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

cils  have  always  maintained.  The  significant 
symbol  of  this  relation  was  a  copy  of  the  Holy 
Gospels  placed  on  a  throne  in  the  midst  of  the 
assembly  as  the  type  of  the  guiding  presence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  It  has  always  been  held  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  a  Council  to  declare  what  has  been 
the  faith  from  the  beginning,  not  to  put  forth  new 
objects  of  belief.  It  might,  on  any  given  matter, 
develop  implicit  into  explicit  faith ;  but  it  was  re- 
quired to  show  that  the  matter  so  developed  was 
a  portion  of  the  original  deposit  and  revelation. 
But  it  is  a  fact,  of  which  ecclesiastical  history 
furnishes  abundant  evidence,  that  General  Coun- 
cils may  err  and  sometimes  have  erred  in  things 
pertaining  to  God.  "  The  inerrancy  of  a  council 
can  never  be  guaranteed  at  the  moment.  The 
value  of  a  council  is  tested  by  its  after  reception 
by  the  Church.  Synods  of  very  limited  numbers 
in  obscure  places  have  by  after  reception  as- 
sumed the  weight  of  an  CEcumenical  Council; 
as,  for  example,  that  of  Orange  on  the  question 
of  grace :  on  the  other  hand,  one  act  of  the  holi- 
est of  all  Councils — that  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles— in  the  matter  of  things 
strangled,  has  in  the  West  become  obsolete. 
Again,  some  canons  of  a  council  are  accepted 
and  some  are  rejected.  Discipline  also  may 
change  so  that  in  respect  of  disciplinary  decrees 
there  is  not  only  an  after  verdict  by  the  living 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  27 

Church,  but  there  is  also  in  operation  a  correc- 
tive process  in  things  non-essential  so  far  as  they 
affect  the  well-being  of  the  Church.'"-^  But  it 
has  always  been  held  that  in  the  case  of  dogma 
touching  any  fundamental  verity  of  the  faith  the 
decision  of  an  approved  (Ecumenical  Council 
settles  the  matter  for  all  time. 

Just  at  this  point  we  are  confronted  by  a  fact 
of  solemn  moment.  The  last  undisputed  General 
Council  was  held  at  the  close  of  the  seventh 
century  (680).  Is  it  true,  then,  that  the  Church's 
only  duly  accredited  organ  for  defining  and  for- 
mulating truth  has  been  in  abeyance  for  1200 
years,  or  since  the  great  schism  between  the 
East  and  West  ?  If  it  be  true,  the  conse- 
quences are  not  so  grave  as  some  would  have 
us  think.  The  suspended  exercise  of  one  form 
of  the  Church's  authority  does  not  involve  the 
suspension  of  her  authority  in  other  forms.  In 
spite  of  this  she  may  still  do  her  work  as  the 
ecclesia  docens,  and  in  various  ways  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  the  Spirit's  guidance  into  all  truth 
necessary  to  salvation ;  still  it  is,  indeed,  a  start- 
ling fact  that  her  plenary  power  for  deciding  con- 
troversies should  have  been  for  so  many  centuries 
powerless.  What  inward  lesions  and  outward  as- 
saults may  have  come  upon  her,  because  of  this 
dormant  function  only  her  own  eternal  Head  can 
*  Bp.  Forbes  "  On  the  Articles,"  p.  299. 


28  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

surely  know.  Certain  it  is  that,  while  schism  con- 
tinues to  do  its  will  upon  the  torn  body,  the 
power  of  inerrancy  inherent  only  in  the  united 
whole  cannot  be  set  in  motion.  All  that  has 
been  decreed  in  any  one  of  the  hundred  parts  is 
liable  to  revision,  and  the  guidance  so  freely 
promised  to  the  Universal  Episcopate  must  be 
greatly  narrowed  as  to  its  present  use.  It  brings 
little  comfort  to  be  reminded  by  those  who  study 
all  history  from  the  'standpoint  of  philosophy, 
that,  bad  as  the  case  is,  it  has  at  least  saved  the 
Church  from  "  the  danger  of  over  definition  of 
the  faith,"  and  has  cleared  the  field  of  Christian 
thought  of  all  barriers  and  fences  not  absolutely 
necessary. 

But,  however  we  may  lament  this  arrested 
power  of  the  Church,  she  still  remains  a  witness 
to  the  truth,  even  if  for  the  time  she  has 
ceased  to  declare  infallibly  fresh  truth.  If  she 
cannot  sanction  new  dogmas,  she  can  testify  to 
the  old;  and  the  old,  be  it  remembered,  cover 
all  truth  essential  to  salvation,  or  needful  for  the 
perfection  of  individual  spiritual  life.  With  this 
we  must  be  content  while  schisms  last.  What  a 
motive  in  all  this  to  labor  and  pray  for  the  return 
of  unity  !  May  God  hasten  it  in  His  own  time 
and  way,  building  up  again  the  breaches  in  the 
Temple  not  m.ade  with  hands,  "  bringing  together, 
in  the  fulness  of  their  proper  organic  life,  the 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  29 

scattered  limbs  of  His  Mystical  Body  and  reviv- 
ing the  heavenly  song  of  Pentecostal  Unity." 
Then  and  not  till  then  will  be  heard  again  the 
long  silent  voice,  and  will  be  seen  once  more  in 
their  divine  beauty  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim 
of  an  infallible  prophetic  inspiration.  The  argu- 
ment thus  far  for  the  binding  validity  of  Catho- 
lic dogma  has  been  based  upon  principles  that 
lie  at  the  root  of  Christian  theology.  Let  me 
now,  so  far  as  time  will  allow,  complete  the  argu- 
ment by  an  appeal  to  the  Church's  experience. 
Of  all  the  lessons  taught  by  this  experience  none 
is  more  positive  than  this:  viz.,  that  without  a 
dogmatic  faith  (always  Catholic  in  its  fundamen- 
tals) the  Church  cannot  fulfil  its  normal  func- 
tions, or  accomplish  the  primary  ends  of  its  ex- 
istence. 

(i)  The  Church  was  ordained  and  constituted 
to  be  a  teaching  body;  but  it  cannot  teach 
unless  it  have  something  to  teach — something 
that  has  form  as  well  as  substance.  The  truths 
of  Revelation,  like  all  other  truths,  must  have 
their  terms  and  definitions;  the  moment  we  be- 
gin to  treat  them  as  the  subject  matter  of  in- 
struction. Their  mutual  limitations  must  be  ex- 
plained. Apparent  contradiction  must  not  be 
allowed  to  displace  either  one  of  two  truths 
which  our  logic  is  too  narrow  to  reconcile. 
Truths  which  are  to  be  taught  must  be  stated ; 


30  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

but  to  state  them  is  to  define  and  formulate 
them.  This  must  be  done  not  only  for  didactic 
uses,  but  equally  so  to  guard  them  against  error. 
For,  if  the  truth  have  no  settled  boundaries,  it  is 
defenceless  against  heresy.  Heresy  is  impossible 
where  truth  is  undefined.  But  defined  truth  is 
positive  truth,  and  positive  truth  in  religion  is 
only  another  name  for  Christian  dogma.  If, 
then,  the  Church  is  to  teach  out  of  God's  Word, 
and  it  is  a  necessary  part  of  its  commission  to  do 
so,  then  it  must  determine  what,  and  how,  and 
when  it  is  to  teach.  But  this  it  cannot  do  unless 
it  give  form  to  the  knowledge  it  would  commu- 
nicate; and  if  it  do  this,  it  must  have  creeds,  and 
if  these,  then  dogmas.  (2)  Again,  experience  has 
proved  that  a  creedless  Church  cannot  be  a  Mis- 
sionary Church.  Potentially  all  dogmas  that 
have  any  claim  upon  us  were  involved  in  the 
Saviour's  command,  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach 
all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  Name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Without  a  positive  message  to  deliver,  the  Church, 
whatever  its  energy  and  enthusiasm,  cannot  cope 
with  the  powers  of  the  world,  far  less  gather  to 
its  standard  hostile  races  or  supplant  false  reli- 
gions. The  moment  it  begins  to  substitute  sen- 
timent, or  vague  notions  of  truth  for  a  definite 
creed,  it  begins  also  to  wither  and  weaken  in  its 
missionary  power.     What  was  true  of  St.  Paul 


ITS  NATURE  AND   OBLIGATIONS.  3 1 

and  of  those  who  wrought  with  him  in  the  Apos- 
tolic age  is  true  now.  Whatever  else  he  held 
back  when  he  wrote  to  the  Romans  and  Ephe- 
sians,  the  Galatians  and  Colossians,  or  when  he 
preached  to  the  wise  men  of  Athens,  he  did  not 
withhold  the  dogmatic  verities  of  the  faith.  He 
did  not  think  his  duty  done  by  exhorting  them 
to  be  devout  and  righteous,  and  to  unite  in  hymns 
and  prayers,  if  they  would  unite  in  nothing  else. 
Christ  Jesus,  indeed,  was  the  burden  of  his 
tongue  and  pen,  but  it  was  Christ  Jesus  explained 
and  defined.  St.  Paul's  Christ  was  a  person,  and 
to  save  Him  from  evaporating  into  a  myth 
among  the  generations  of  men,  the  historic  fact 
was  developed  and  formulated  into  articles  of 
belief.  So  the  Church  preaches  Christ  to-day, 
and  it  is  only  as  it  does  so  that  it  can  go  forth 
among  the  nations  conquering  and  to  conquer. 

(3)  Still  again,  the  Church  was  commissioned  to 
act  as  the  custodian,  through  all  time,  of  a  certain 
type  of  spiritual  life  in  its  own  body  and  in  its 
individual  members.  This  type  is  spread  out  in 
the  Word  of  God  and  in  the  lives  of  prophets, 
apostles  and  confessors.  It  is  repeated  in  every 
page  of  Christian  history,  and  can  be  discerned 
to-day  amid  all  differences  in  the  great  company 
of  the  faithful  throughout  all  the  world.  It  has 
been  disturbed  and  infringed  chiefly  by  two  ten- 
dencies within    the  Church — the  one    cropping 


32  CATHOLIC  DOGMA: 

out  in  a  dead  orthodoxy,  the  other  in  a  spiritual 
mysticism;  the  one  eHminating  life  from  dogma, 
the  other  dogma  from  life.  The  latter  is  our 
danger.  The  spirit  and  fashion  of  the  time  are 
with  it.  The  religion  of  the  day  is  mostly  one 
of  affinity  and  feeling,  not  of  knowledge  or  prin- 
ciple. Christian  mystics  and  latitudinarian  sen- 
timentalists dread  nothing  so  much  as  a  dog- 
matic faith.  It  seems  not  to  have  dawned 
upon  them  that  a  creedless  religion  is  simply  a 
body  without  bones,  a  bridge  without  abut- 
ments, and  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of 
a  confession  which  has  nothing  to  confess — a 
faith  which  has  nothing  to  be  believed.  It  is, 
then,  the  voice  of  experience  as  well  the  voice  of 
God's  Word  and  of  right  reason  that  the  Church 
can  hope  to  maintain  the  true  life  of  God  in  itself 
and  in  the  individual  soul  only  as  it  adheres  to  a 
positive  faith. 

(4)  Again,  it  is  certain  that  the  Church  was 
intended  to  preserve  and  transmit  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  Christian  morality.  Natural 
morality  has  no  dogmatic  foundation.  Chris- 
tian morality  is  Christian  chiefly  because  it  has 
such  a  foundation.  Every  attempt  to  separate 
the  moral  from  the  dogmatic  teaching  of  the 
Church  has  failed.  No  man  can  put  asunder 
what  God  has  joined  together;  and  for  this  reason 
among  others:  no  man  can  tell  where  the  one  be- 


ITS  NATURE  AND    OBLIGATIONS.  33 

gins  and  the  other  ends.  Doctrine  and  duty,  what 
we  believe  and  what  we  do,  are  but  different  sides 
of  the  same  divine  message  and  form  one  and 
the  same  organic  whole.  The  moral  law,  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  the  faith  which  apprehends 
the  truth  and  the  personal  duties  that  germinate 
from  it,  are  all  vital  elements  of  the  one  Revela- 
tion to  man.  Therefore,  it  is  impossible  to  teach 
Christian  morals  apart  from  Christian  dogma. 

(5)  Finally,  we  cannot  but  believe  that  the 
Church  was  meant  so  to  administer  the  trusts  and 
affairs  of  its  Divine  Charter  as  to  command  in 
every  age  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  best 
culture  and  intelligence  of  mankind.  This  view 
has,  in  every  generation,  had  much  to  do  with  di- 
recting the  thought  and  study,  and  through  these 
the  theology  of  the  Church.  Its  intellectual  ac- 
tivity centres  in  the  work  of  inculcating  and  de- 
fending its  dogmas.  On  their  human  side  these 
dogmas  bear  the  impress  of  its  intelligence.  They 
have  been  shaped  by  its  thought  and  cast  in  the 
mould  of  its  learning.  They  are  its  formal  answers 
at  the  bar  of  reason  to  the  world's  demand  for 
some-rational  account  of  its  faith.  Had  the  Church 
only  sentiment  to  cherish  and  propagate,  or  only 
moral  duties  to  inculcate,  simply  urging  men  to 
be  good  and  devout — it  would  need  little  intelli- 
gence and  less  mental  activity ;  for  its  task  would 
be  so  simple  and  uniform  as  to  demand  but  a 
3 


34  CATHOLIC  DOGMA. 

small  measure  of  either.  Dogmas  may  be  scouted 
by  unbelief,  treated  with  scant  respect  by  the  ad-' 
vanced  thinkers  of  the  day,  or  with  indifference 
by  their  own  chosen  teachers ;  but,  after  all,  they 
are  the  intellectual  bonds  which  connect  the 
Church  with  all  the  highest  thinking  of  the  day. 
And  such  is  the  constitution  of  the  Church  that 
it  must  be  strong  in  its  intellectual  work,  if  it 
would  be  so  in  its  spiritual  work;  and,  whatever 
its  strength,  it  all  flows  on  in  one  current  of 
power. 

Such,  then,  are  the  nature  and  obligations  of 
Catholic  dogma.  If  what  I  have  set  forth  be 
true,  what  else  shall  be  said  than  that  he  who 
trifles  with  the  Church's  creed  assails  the  vital 
functions  of  the  Church  itself,  cripples  its  power 
to  teach  and  convert  the  nations,  and  weakens 
its  hold  on  a  sound  and  balanced  spiritual 
life.  Is  it  not  true  that  he  who  undermines  the 
faith  undermines  the  morality  of  the  Gospel  ? 
Does  he  not  attack  the  hope  who  attacks  the 
doctrine  of  Salvation  ?  Are  not  they  in  every 
age  to  be  accounted  vicious  meddlers  with  the 
ordinances  of  God  who  magnify  practice  at  the 
expense  of  belief,  unity  of  spirit  at  the  cost  of 
unity  of  faith  and  order  ? 


Z\)c  2)ogma  of  tbe  ITrinit^. 


In  regard  to  the  lecture  on  The  Trinity,  which 
appears  in  this  volume,  it  should  be  stated  that  the 
original  lecture  on  that  subject  was  delivered  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Shackleford,  but  after  its  delivery  the 
manuscript  was  mislaid.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Huntington 
kindly  volunteered  to  supply  this  serious  loss,  and 
the  paper  on  the  subject  herein  published  was  pre- 
pared by  him.  It  is  thus  owing  to  his  courtesy  in 
the  matter  that  the  course  now  published  is  com- 
plete. 


LECTURE    11. 

THE   REV.    WILLIAM   REED    HUNTINGTON,    D.D., 

Rector  of  Grace  Church,  New  York. 

THE   DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY, 

For  all  people  will  walk  every  one  in  the  name  of  his 
god,  and  we  will  walk  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God 
for  ever  and  ever.     Micah  iv.  5. 

Christendom  is  differentiated  from  heathen- 
dom simply  by  a  better  knowledge  of  what  God  is 
like.  All  other  phases  of  the  contrast  between 
the  two  realms  are  trivial  as  compared  with  this. 
Doubtless  every  one  of  the  races  of  men  has  some 
notion  of  divinity,  more  or  less  clearly  defined ; 
they  are  all  of  them  religious,  even  theological, 
after  their  fashion ;  they  '*  walk  every  one  in  the 
name  of  his  god ;"  but  that  which  gives  the  Chris- 
tian peoples  their  pre-eminence  and  puts  them  in 
the  front  of  civilization  is  the  fact  that  they  pos- 
sess a  better  informed  religion,  a  more  enlightened 
theology,  a  juster  appreciation  of  what  is  covered 
by  "  the  name  of  their  God  "  than  the  others  have. 
They  not  only  know  God  in  the  sense  of  being  per- 


38  THE  DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

suaded  that  He  exists,  but  in  some  measure  they 
apprehend,  even  while  confessing  that  they  can- 
not comprehend,  His  character  and  His  ways. 
In  a  word,  the  difference  is  a  doctrinal  difference ; 
the  Christian  peoples  have  been  the  more  intelli- 
gently taught ;  there  has  come  into  their  hands 
an  altogether  better  tradition  of  God. 

This  distinction  between  knowing  and  knowing 
intelligently  is  familiar  enough,  for  it  is  empha- 
sized whenever,  in  any  inquiry,  the  point  of  ac- 
curacy is  raised;  but  the  other  contrast,  namely, 
that  which  lies  between  an  intelligent  and  2,  per- 
fect knowledge,  is  not  so  often  noted.  Everybody, 
in  a  sense,  knows  the  sun :  it  is  impossible  to 
mistake  it  for  anything  else,  or  anything  else  for 
it.  But  the  converse  of  the  proposition  may  be 
equally  well  maintained,  namely,  that  nobody 
knows  the  sun ;  nobody  knows  it,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  sense  of  being  able  to  explain  fully  its  in- 
terior condition,  or  to  make  out  the  secret  of  its 
heat-supply.  In  fact,  it  may  be  truthfully  said 
that  our  ignorance  of  the  sun  is  vastly  more  ex- 
tensive than  our  acquaintance  with  it.  And  yet 
to  belittle  on  this  account  the  stores  of  knowledge 
acquired  by  aid  of  the  telescope,  the  spectroscope, 
and  the  polariscope  is  scarcely  a  creditable  thing. 
What  the  astronomer  of  to-day  knows  about  the 
sun  may  indeed  be  very  little  as  compared  with 
what  might  be  known,  but  it  is  very  much  as  com- 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  39 

pared  with  what  the  savage  knows,  or  even  with 
what  the  civiHzed  man  of  average  education 
knows.  This  is  the  justification  of  pure  theology. 
It  is  not  alleged  by  the  Christian  thinker  that  it  is 
possible  to  "  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  per- 
fection ;  *'  but  it  is  aflfirmed,  and  afifirmed  with 
confidence,  that  of  the  Power  throned  at  the 
heart  of  things  it  has  been  given  us  to  know  more 
than  the  mere  fact  that  it  exists. 

It  may  be  objected  to  the  solar  illustration 
just  employed,  that  being  drawn  from  the  natural 
universe  it  is  inapplicable  to  such*  personal  rela- 
tions as  Christian  theology  postulates  between 
the  soul  and  God.  And  yet  it  is  easy  enough  to 
show  that  this  same  characteristic  of  gradation 
attaches  to  the  kind  of  knowledge  which  spirits 
have  of  one  another.  We  all  feel  that  we  know 
Cromwell,  for  example  ;  know  him,  that  is  to  say, 
as  a  person  markedly  different  from  all  the  other 
persons  whose  portraits  hang  in  the  gallery  of 
our  thoughts.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  one 
who  perfectly  knows  Cromwell  except  Cromwell's 
Maker.  Meanwhile,  midway,  or  rather  part  way 
between  the  Almighty's  absolute  and  perfect 
knowledge  of  Cromwell  and  my  own  faint  and 
dim  apprehension  of  what  he  was,  comes  such  an 
acquaintance  with  the  man's  personality  as  was 
enjoyed  by  Milton  and  Fairfax  among  his  con- 
temporaries and  by  Carlyle  and  Guizot  among 


40  THE  DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

his  critics.  Similarly,  in  every-day  life,  how  many 
people  we  know  '*  by  sight  "  or  ^'  by  name  ;  "  and 
yet  how  few  we  know  intelligently,  know  in  such 
a  way  as  to  be  able  to  predict  decisively  how 
they  would  act  if  placed  in  this  or  that  position, 
subjected  to  such  or  such  a  temptation,  weighted 
with  some  special  task  or  responsibility  or  sor- 
row !  Now,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  generally  true 
that  the  more  intelligent  our  knowledge,  whether 
of  things  or  of  persons,  the  more  satisfactory  it 
is  and  the  more  pleasure  it  gives  us.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  accomplished  scholar  travels  over 
the  globe  with  infinitely  more  delight  than  the 
chance  tourist ;  and  to  the  eye  of  the  naturalist 
or  the  painter  many  a  landscape  dull  to  ordinary 
observers  is  brimming  over  with  suggestion.  It 
cannot,  therefore,  in  religion  be  a  matter  of  in- 
difference whether  the  object  of  worship  is  appre- 
hended with  more  or  with  less  of  intelligence, 
whether  God  is  known  to  us  as 

'' Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord." 

This  brings  us  directly  to  our  subject. 

All  the  theologies  that  have  risen  above  the 
level  of  mere  fetichism  or  sorcery  may  be  com- 
prehensively classed  under  five  heads:  (i)  Pan- 
theism, (2)  Polytheism,  (3)  Dualism,  (4)  Mono- 
theism without  personal  differentiation,  and  (5) 
Monotheism  with  personal  differentiation. 

To  these  correspond    certain    formulas   easily 


THE   DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY.  4 1 

remembered ;  to  wit,  the  pantheistic  "  God  is  the 
all,  and  the  all  is  God ;  "  the  polytheistic  "  There 
are  gods  many  and  lords  many;"  the  dualistic 
"  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman;"  the  Hebrew  "There 
is  one  God  "  (to  which  the  Moslem  appends, ''  and 
Mahomet  is  his  prophet ") ;  and  the  Christian 
"There  is  one  God:  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost."  It  is  maintained  by  the  inheritors  of  the 
last-named  formula  that  it  both  recognizes  and 
reconciles  all  that  is  true  in  the  other  four,  while 
at  the  same  time  strenuously  exclusive  of  what- 
ever in  them  has  been  found  harmful,  whether  by 
way  of  logical  issue  or  of  practical  result.  For 
example,  it  is  the  virtue  of  pantheism  that  by  dis- 
tributing deity  throughout  the  universe  it  liter- 
ally makes  all  things  everywhere  aglow  with  God, 
no  temple-measurements  being  thought  worthy 
of  His  divine  Majesty  less  lofty  than  the  heavens 
above  or  narrower  than  the  east  is  from  the  west. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  vice  of  pantheism  is  the 
confusion  which  its  denial  of  God's  personality 
brings  about  between  holiness  and  unholiness. 
Nature,  unfortunately,  is  not  nice  in  her  ethical 
distinctions.  It  is  true  that  in  the  long  run  her 
fires  and  fevers  make  war  against  sensual  sin,  but 
to  the  transgression  of  the  wicked  she  often  seems, 
in  individual  cases,  strangely  blind ;  while  upon 
certain  grave  offences  against  righteousness  she 
pronounces  no  censure  at  all.     The  moral  phi- 


42  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

losophy  of  pantheism  sums  itself  up  in  the  'say- 
ing, *'  What  Nature  dictates,  dare  to  do,"  a  maxim 
as  plausible  as  it  is  rhythmical,  but  which  some 
accepting  and  acting  upon  have  found  them- 
selves in  hell. 

The  Christian  theologian  concedes,  without  de- 
mur, all  that  the  pantheist  has  to  say  concerning 
the  omnipresence  of  deity,  the  immanence  of  God 
within  and  throughout  both  universes,  the  seen 
and  the  unseen;  better  than  this,  he  carries  the 
war  into  Africa  by  demanding  the  name  of  any 
pantheistic  author,  whether  philosopher  or  poet, 
who  has  given  worthier  utterance  in  words  to 
this  great  truth  than  St.  Paul,  than  Monica  the 
mother  of  Augustine,  than  William  Wordsworth, 
Christians  every  one  of  them.  But  this,  which  is 
the  whole  of  pantheism,  is  but  the  half  of  what 
prophets,  evangelists,  and  apostles  teach,  for  these 
last  add  to  the  conception  of  the  divine  imma- 
nence the  further  and  still  grander  thought  of  the 
divine  transcendence,  supplementing  the  dogma 
"  God  is  everywhere "  by  the  addendum  "  and 
everywhere  the  Judge."  In  polytheism  also,  as  in 
pantheism,  the  Christian  theologian  is  frank  to 
recognize  a  certain  measure  of  truth.  The  heroes 
and  demigods  of  polytheism  testify,  in  a  blind 
way,  to  man's  craving  after  a  deity  who  can  meet 
him  on  his  own  ground  and  be  touched  by  a  feel- 
ing of  his  infirmities,  some  divine  Word  capable 


rilE   DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY.  43 

of  being  ''  made  flesh  "  and  of  dwelling  among  us. 
The  simple  barbarians,  who  named  Barnabas 
"Jupiter  "and  Paul  *' Mercury,"  under  the  im- 
pression that  "  the  gods "  had  come  down  to 
them,  witnessed,  without  knowing  it,  to  their  need 
of  the  very  message  these  missionaries  had  come 
to  bring,  the  tidings  that  God  had  "visited  His 
people."  Moreover,  polytheism  deserves  credit 
for  the  stress  it  lays  on  the  social  phase  of  the 
divine  existence.  The  council  on  Olympus  indi- 
cates a  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  framer  or 
framers  of  the  mythology  in  which  it  plays  so 
prominent  a  part,  that  even  within  deity  itself 
there  must  be  scope  for  what  we  know  as  mu- 
tuality or  fellowship.  What  measure  of  recog- 
nition Christian  theology  accords  to  this  demand 
will  be  seen  later  on  ;  for  the  moment,  it  is  enough 
to  note  the  point  as  worth  remembering  that  the 
classic  mythology  was  practically  a  deification  of 
society. 

But  polytheism  is  found  hopelessly  wanting 
both  in  its  physics  and  its  ethics;  in  its  physics, 
because  without  an  acknowledged  archon  or  head 
the  cosmos  is  hopelessly  unintelligible;  in  its 
ethics,  because,  with  a  multitude  of  gods  and  god- 
desses who  confessedly  share  man's  weaknesses 
as  they  share  his  virtues,  there  can  be  no  fixed 
standard  of  conduct.  Sterile  of  scientific  sug- 
gestion, and  in  morals  prolific  mainly  of  the  bad, 


44  THE  DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

polytheism  held  out  against  the  Christian  faith 
only  so  long  as  it  was  bolstered  by  brute  force. 

The  third  of  the  inadequate  theologies,  dual- 
ism, is  simply  polytheism  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms.  The  dualistic  hypothesis  gathers  up  all 
the  antagonisms  and  contrarieties  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  universe,  and  marshals  them 
under  the  two  great  heads  of  a  power  making 
for  good  and  a  power  making  for  evil.  Dualism 
is  a  practical  surrender  of  all  hope  of  a  final  har- 
mony, an  ultimate  pacification  ;  for  if  the  two  king- 
doms, that  of  light  and  that  of  darkness,  are  co- 
eternal,  their  dissidence  and  conflict  must  also 
be  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  and  world  with- 
out end.  This  is  pessimism  but  one  degree  un- 
moved from  its  worst. 

There  remains  to  be  considered  monotheism,  or 
the  belief  that  deity  has  but  one  source  and  fount, 
and  that  to  name  two  gods  is  as  grave  a  blas- 
phemy as  to  name  a  thousand.  This  is  the  doc- 
trine which  by  aid  of  Holy  Scripture  we  find 
ourselves  able  to  trace  back  as  far  as  the  thread 
of  human  history  runs.  At  no  time  has  it  been 
held  by  all,  at  many  times  it  has  been  held  only 
by  a  few,  but  at  all  times  it  has  been  held  by 
some.  If  we  divest  ourselves  for  a  moment  of 
our  inherited  prepossessions  in  favor  of  this  faith, 
and  consider  how  much  there  is  in  nature  and  in 
human  life  that  seems  at  first  sight  to  make  dead 


THE  DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY.  45 

against  the  monotheistic  creed,  we  cannot  but 
wonder  that  in  days  when  pantheism,  polytheism, 
and  dualism  all  were  strong  it  should  have  made 
out  to  achieve  survival. 

In  the  full  daytime  of  a  monotheistic  civili- 
zation the  supremacy  of  such  a  faith  is  easily 
enough  understood;  but  how  as  *'a  light  shin- 
ing in  a  dark  place  "  it  should  have  made  out 
to  glimmer  on  as  it  did  is  explicable  most  easily 
upon  the  theory  which  assigns  the  origin  of  the 
belief  to  revelation  and  the  continuance  of  it 
to  providential  care.  But  while  the  Bible,  taken 
as  a  whole,  may  be  regarded  as  the  great  record- 
book  of  monotheism,  it  is  impossible  not  to  no- 
tice a  strikingly  significant  distinction  between 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament  the- 
ologies. The  great  end  and  aim  of  revelation  in 
pre-Christian  times  seems  to  have  been  to  stamp 
ineffaceably  upon  the  mind  of  man  the  truth, 
"There  is  one  God,  and  there  is  none  other  but 
He."  As  against  pantheism,  polytheism,  and 
dualism,  this  was  the  witness  to  be  witnessed 
until  the  dogma  of  the  divine  unity  should  be- 
come to  the  Church  as  bone  of  her  bone  and  flesh 
of  her  flesh.  This  end  accomplished — and  it  took 
more  than  *'the  wisdom  of  a  thousand  years  "  to 
do  it — it  became  possible  to  amplify  and  enrich 
the  doctrine  of  God  without  imperilling  the  in- 
tegrity of  it;  possible  to  show  that   the  divine 


46  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

unity,  so  strenuously  insisted  upon  in  the  Law, 
the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,  was  not  the  mere 
synonym  of  singleness,  but  rather  should  be  con- 
ceived of  as  a  unity  of  that  more  fruitful  type 
which  implies  union  and  communion.  In  har- 
mony with  this  view,  we  note  the  fact  that  every 
stage,  epoch,  era,  crisis,  in  the  progressive  reve- 
lation of  God  to  man  has  been  marked  by  the 
annunciation  of  a  name.  Always  in  Scripture 
we  find  "name  '*  used  either  as  significant  of  the 
power  or  as  interpretative  of  the  nature  of  the 
One  whose  name  it  is.  The  Bible-names,  like 
the  chemist's  symbols,  tell  their  own  story;  they 
are  more  than  mere  tags:  they  supply  a  genuine 
analysis,  give  insight  into  character,  are  literally 
hieroglyphic. 

When  God  appeared  to  Abraham  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  that  family  covenant  which  was 
destined  afterward  to  broaden  into  the  charter 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  words  with 
which  he  opened  the  august  interview  were  these, 
"  I  am  the  Almighty  God."  It  was  the  communi- 
cation of  a  name,  a  name  full  of  suggestions  of 
majesty  and  strength.  From  that  time  on  there 
was  to  be  no  looking  backward  on  Abraham's  part 
to  the  "  gods  "  which  he  had  left  on  the  other  side 
of  the  stream.  When  Moses  received  at  the  hand 
of  this  same  Abraham's  God  his  commission  to  be 
the  leader  of  the'  exodus,  there  is  again  the  com- 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  47 

munication  of  a  name — "And  God  said  unto 
Moses,  I  AM  THAT  I  AM.  And  he  said,  Thus 
shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  I  AM 
hath  sent  me  unto  you."  Later  in  the  same  doc- 
ument we  find  these  remarkable  words:  "And 
God  spake  unto  Moses  and  said  unto  him,  I  am 
the  Lord,  and  I  appeared  unto  Abraham,  unto 
Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob  by  the  name  of  God  Al- 
mighty, but  by  my  name  Jehovah  was  I  not 
known  to  them."  Difificult  as  the  interpretation 
of  this  passage  undoubtedly  is,  it  certainly  does 
illustrate  the  point  that  a  characteristic  feature 
of  God's  gradual  unveiling  of  the  truth  about 
Himself  has  been  the  successive  annunciation  of 
names.  Just  in  proportion  to  men's  enlarged 
knowledge  of  what  God  is  like  has  been  their  need 
of  a  new  name  for  Him;  and  conversely  the  new 
name,  when  announced,  has  served  as  finger-post 
to  a  still  larger  knowledge. 

When  we  pass  to  the  New  Testament,  we  find 
ourselves  confronted  at  the  very  portals  of  the 
Gospel  by  a  new. name.  St.  Mark  opens  with 
the  words,  "  The  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God."  Evidently  a  fresh  rev- 
elation is  at  hand,  harbingered  as  usual  by  a  name. 
Following  this  Jesus,  and  noting  with  carefulness 
what  He  says,  we  find  Him  continually  speaking 
of  His  Father,  of  Himself,  and  as  His  ministry 
draws  toward  its  end,  of  One  whom  He  names 


48  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

''  the  Spirit."  His  language,with  respect  to  each  of 
these  three,  is  what  we  know  as  personal  language. 
He  speaks  of  the  "  Father  "  as  the  One  by  whom 
He  has  been  sent  into  the  world;  He  speaks  of 
"  the  Spirit  "  as  One  whom  He  Himself  will  send. 
Surely  if  language  means  anything,  language 
such  as  this  means  that  here  are  three  predicates. 
Unless  the  speaker  is  trifling  with  words,  it  fol- 
lows necessarily  from  what  He  says  that  the 
Father  is  not  the  Son,  that  the  Son  is  not  the 
Spirit,  and  that  the  Spirit  is  not  the  Father.  But 
even  though  the  diversity  be  conceded,  why  admit 
the  equality  ?  Why  not  suppose  a  hierarchy  of 
powers — the  Father  the  Supreme,  the  Son  a  be- 
ing of  second  rank,  the  Spirit  tertiary  ?  For  the 
best  of  reasons,  as  found  in  the  last  recorded 
words  of  the  Revealer  Himself.  Jesus  Christ, 
about  to  part  from  His  apostles,  gives  them  a 
commission.  By  an  appointment  made  on  the 
day  of  the  Resurrection  they  have  met  in  Gali- 
lee; they  are  alone  together  on  a  mountain -top; 
it  is  a  critical  moment,  the  climax  of  the  earthly 
ministry;  now,  if  ever,  is  the  time  for  the  whole 
substance  of  the  revelation,  which  this  Christ  has 
come  to  bring,  to  be  compressed  into  a  sentence, 
into  one  memorable  word.  It  is  spoken.  Jesus 
says  to  them :  *'  All  authority  hath  been  given 
unto  me  in  Heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  there- 
fore, and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  bap- 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  49 

tizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of 
the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  *  When  we  re- 
member how  intense  was  the  sanctity  attached 
by  the  Hebrew  mind  to  the  first  of  these  three 
names,  *'  the  Father,"  we  see  at  once  that  to  have 
coupled  with  it  two  others  of  lesser  dignity  would 
have  seemed  to  the  disciples  the  height  of  blas- 
phemy. Doubtless  it  startled  them  to  hear  this 
new  name  enunciated  at  all;  but  once  heard,  it 
must  have  become  immediately  the  synonym  of 
deity.  It  is  difficult,  indeed,  to  imagine  them, 
with  their  exalted  notions  of  the  honor  due  to  the 
name  of  God,  so  interpreting  their  commission 
as  to  make  it  read,  **  Baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father  Everlasting,  of  a  Creature 
born  in  time,  and  of  an  Influence  potent  for  good." 
Yet  this  last  is  the  alternative  rendering  which 
those  who  can  see  in  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity 
nothing  better  than  a  metaphysical  paradox  would 
have  us  accept.  Thus  solemnly  enunciated,  the 
Christian  Name  of  God  fell  on  the  ear  like  the 
morning  gun  of  a  new  day — "  Light  has  come 
into  the  world,"  men  said,  and  with  reason.  Yet 
it  was  not  imagined — for  how  could  it  be  ? — that 
the  new  Name  would  displace  and  supersede  the 
old.  Jesus  Christ  had  not  come  to  reveal  a  God 
other  than  He  whom  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Isaiah 

*  St.  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  Revised  Version. 


50  THE  DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY. 

had  worshipped,  but  only  to  reveal  the  same  God 
more  fully.  Some  way  there  must  be,  if  only  it 
could  be  found,  of  reconciling  the  threeness  of 
the  new  Name  with  the  oneness  of  the  old. 
The  thought  that  the  God  of  Truth  could  by  any 
possibility  have  contradicted  himself  in  these 
successive  unveilings  of  his  countenance  was  not 
for  a  moment  to  be  entertained.  This,  then,  was 
one  of  the  great  questions  with  which  the  master- 
minds of  the  early  Church  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  wrestle — How  could  God  be  one,  and 
yet  also  be,  as  Christ  had  represented,  **'  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost "?  The  apostles,  in  their 
time,  handled  the  problem  in  ways  that  we  should 
call  practical  and  devotional.  Theirs  was  the 
dialectic  of  persuasion  rather  than  of  controversy, 
and  for  the  most  part  they  were  content  with 
simply  suggesting  what  later  theologians  thought 
it  wise  to  formulate.  But  their  Trinitarianism 
was  none  the  less  emphatic  because  of  its  singing 
and  praying  itself  into  expression.  When,  for 
example,  St.  Paul  says,  "Through  Him  we  both 
have  access,  in  one  Spirit,  unto  the  Father,"  he  is 
not,  to  be  sure,  laying  down  the  dogma  of  the 
Trinity  as  such,  but  he  is  using  language  which 
perfectly  consists  with  what  that  dogma  teaches, 
for  it  is  evident  that  unless  we  take  "  access  "  to 
God  in  the  superficial  sense  of  admission  to  heaven 
as  a  sort  of  inclosure,  it   must  mean  the  being 


THE   DOGMA    OF    THE    TRINITY.  51 

made  truly  acquainted  with  heaven's  God ;  and 
it  is  equally  evident  that  no  one  can  afford  us 
"  access  "  of  this  better  sort  one-half  so  adequately 
as  a  Helper  who  is  able  to  say  of  himself:  "All 
things  that  the  Father  hath  are  mine;"  "I  am 
the  Way ;  "  ''  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father." 

Similarly  we  might  take  scores  of  New  Testa- 
ment sayings  and  find  in  them,  not  indeed  the 
scholastic  phraseology  of  the  dogma  of  the  Trin- 
ity, but  all  that  makes  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity 
precious  to  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  believer. 

For  really  the  very  best  account  that  can  be 
given  of  the  genesis  of  this  dogma  is  that  which 
traces  it  to  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  early  Church 
to  treat  Scripture  precisely  as  modern  science 
is  treating  nature,  namely,  by  the  inductive 
method.  Largely  viewed,  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments  are  the  embodiment  of  a  majestic 
tradition  of  God.  Taken  together  and  as  a  whole, 
they  make  the  source  of  our  theology,  strictly  so 
called,  our  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  Al- 
mighty. It  is  to  them  we  go  when  bent  on  find- 
ing out  what  God  is  like,  when  eager  to  get  an 
answer  to  Paul's  question,  Who  art  thou,  Lord  ? 
Thus  approached,  the  Scriptures  become  to  the 
devout  explorer  of  them  what  the  heavens  are  to 
the  astronomer,  or  the  earth  and  the  sea  to  the 
geologist,   namely,   the   storehouse  of   the    data 


52  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

Upon  which  his  beliefs  are  to  be  built  up.  The 
student  of  science  gets  together  all  the  facts  ger- 
mane to  his  inquiry  that  he  can  possibly  lay 
hands  on,  and  after  a  careful  comparison  of  one 
with  another  finally  settles  upon  a  formula  which 
he  deems  large  enough  to  correlate  and  unify 
them  all.  This  he  calls  the  *' law  "  of  the  phe- 
nomena. It  is  a  loose  phrase,  but  it  is  the  best 
we  have.  The  dogma  of  the  Trinity  is  simply 
the  "law  of  the  phenomena,"  with  respect  to 
God's  revelation  of  His  nature,  as  these  phenom- 
ena present  themselves  in  Holy  Scripture;  it  is 
the  result,  that  is  to  say,  of  applying  to  the  relig- 
ious annals  of  a  people  evidently  marked  off 
from  all  other  peoples  in  a  wonderful  way  the 
very  same  method  which  under  the  name  of 
"induction"  has  accomplished  in  the  field  of 
modern  chemistry  and  physics  such  memorable 
results.  The  Old  Testament,  as  we  have  seen, 
insists  almost  passionately  upon  the  truth  that 
God  is  one;  the  New,  without  for  a  moment  dis- 
paraging thi^  all-important  dogma,  does,  never- 
theless, very  significantly  intimate  that  God  is 
three.  Now,  the  mind  of  the  primitive  Church 
meditating  upon  these  things,  patiently  compar- 
ing Scripture  with  Scripture,  and  seeking,  as  far 
as  might  be,  to  reconcile  what  seemed  contrari- 
ant  utterances  of  the  one  oracle,  finally  found 
rest  in  the  conclusion  that  God  was  to  be  known 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  53 

and  worshipped  both  as  one  and  three,  as  one  in 
the  sense  which  excludes  dualism,  tritheism,  and 
polytheism ;  as  three  in  the  sense  which  makes  it 
"meet,  right,  and  our  bounden  duty"  to  give 
glory  to  "  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost."  The 
Trinity  is  grafted  upon  the  unity,  not  the  unity 
upon  the  Trinity.  There  is  but  one  eternal  fount 
of  deity.  The  "  Everlasting  Kingdom  "  is  mon- 
archical, not  triarchical.  Yet  though  the  order  is 
eternal  which  bids  us  ever  name  the  three  in  that 
succession  which  the  Creed  observes,  none  the 
less  are  we  bound  to  recognize  that  equality  of 
nature  which  lives  between  every  father  and  every 
son,  since  "  light  from  light "  *  is  just  as  truly 
light  as  if  it  were  underived. 

It  certainly  is  a  most  noteworthy  fact,  however 
explained,  that  the  lands  and  races  which  have 
become  identified  with  this  special  doctrine  of 
the  divine  existence  are  the  lands  and  races 
known  as  "  progressive." 

As  respects  the  getting  at  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  universe  we  inhabit,  the  heathen  mind 
seems  to  be  absolutely  spell-bound.  Chinese 
"  science,"  for  example,  is  the  laughing-stock  of 
the  Christian  peoples;  so  is  Hindoo  science;  so 
is  Japanese  science — although  in  a  sense  we  ac- 


*  The  accurate  sense  of  the  "  Light  of  Light  "  of  the  Nicene 
Creed. 


54  THE  DOGMA    OF  THE    TRINITY. 

count  all  three  of  these  nationalities  civilized, 
certainly  educated.  Nor  yet  has  even  monotheism 
pure  and  simple,  the  monotheism  which  exalts 
singleness,  and  singleness  only,  in  its  doctrine  of 
the  being  of  God,  given  evidence  of  its  ability  so 
to  impregnate  the  human  mind  as  to  make  it  con- 
tinually fruitful  of  new  thought.  Neither  the 
Hebrew  nor  the  Moslem  tradition  has  associated 
itself  permanently  with  scientific  progress,  the 
inventive  achievements  of  the  Saracenic  period 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  To  monothe- 
ism we  owe,  no  doubt,  that  assured  confidence  in 
the  oneness  of  the  whole  universe  of  things  and 
forces  which  is  the  basis  of  all  modern  physics; 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  anything  less  than  a 
Christian  philosophy,  with  its  allowance  for  di- 
versity and  correlation  within  the  very  Godhead 
itself,  would  have  made  possible  the  discoveries 
which  are  the  jewels  in  the  crown  of  scientific 
monism.  The  age-long  problem  is  the  problem 
of  ''the  many  and  the  one;  "  and  those  thinkers 
are  the  most  likely  to  make  progress  in  the  solv- 
ing of  it  whose  theological  concept  has  room 
in  it  for  the  thought  of  manifoldness  as  well 
as  for  the  thought  of  singleness.  At  least  so 
long  as  **  the  kings  of  modern  thought  "  continue 
dumb  upon  this  point  and  have  no  explanation 
of  their  own  to  offer,  it  will  be  open  to  the  main- 
tainers  of  the  Christian  faith  to  attribute  to  their 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  55 

doctrine  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  that 
fructifying  influence  upon  human  faculty  which 
somehow  and  from  some  source  or  other  has  in 
these  last  days  been  brought  to  bear.  The  very 
map  of  the  world,  with  its  patches  of  dark  and 
light,  may  itself  be  put  in  evidence  on  the  Chris- 
tian side.  The  areas  which  the  geographers  mark 
"enlightened"  are  conterminous  with  Christen- 
dom; and  by  common  acknowledgment  that 
which  is  most  central  to  Christendom  is  the  Creed 
whose  first  paragraph  begins,  "  I  believe  in  God 
the  Father; "  whose  second  is  freighted  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  Son;  and  whose  third  opens,  "I 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Supplementary  to  the  scriptural  argument, 
which  from  the  nature  of  the  case  must  always 
be  the  main  dependence  of  the  defenders  of 
Trinitarian  dogma,  comes  the  argument  from  an- 
alogy. Our  Lord  found  the  natural  world  and  the 
social  world  full,  both  of  them,  of  similitudes  sin- 
gularly helpful  to  the  better  understanding  of 
spiritual  truth ;  is  there  nothing  to  be  gathered 
from  these  same  regions  in  illustration  of  His  final 
and  presumably  His  most  significant  utterance  ? 
Such  parables  there  are,  although  it  must  frank- 
ly be  acknowledged  that  none  of  them  is  ab- 
solutely without  flaw.  But  if,  as  all  the  com- 
mentators are  obliged  to  confess,  this  same  char- 
acteristic of  partial  and  limited  applicability  is 


56  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE^   TRINITY. 

found  in  Christ's  own  parables,  our  having  to 
make  this  admission  need  not  greatly  trouble  us. 

Beginning,  then,  at  the  inorganic  world,  we  have 
the  singularly  beautiful  parable  of  the  sunbeam, 
all  the  more  significant  because  of  the  frequency 
with  which  Christ  and  His  apostles  appeal  to 
*'  light "  in  their  expositions  of  the  things  of  the 
Spirit.     ''  God  is  light." 

Of  the  sunbeam  we  certainly  can  affirm  that 
it  has  unity — we  say  "  a  beam  of  light."  Yet 
in  the  unity  of  this  same  sunbeam  there  coex- 
ist these  three  entities:  heat,  light,  and  actinism. 
No  analysis  can  shake  these  three  completely 
.apart,  yet  are  they  three  in  one  as  certainly  as 
they  are  one  in  three.* 

Another  striking  analogy,  also  drawn  from  the 
inorganic  realm,  is  the  parable  of  the  diamond. 
This  similitude  is  based  on  what  chemists  know 
as  the  phenomenon  of  allotropism.  There  are 
certain  substances — the  diamond  is  one — which, 
chameleon-like,  present  themselves  in  nature  un- 
der widely  different  aspects.  The  three  substan- 
ces known  as  diamond,  graphite,  and  coal  are 
chemically  one  and  the  same  element.  Burnt  in 
oxygen  gas,  they  yield  precisely  the  same  prod- 

*  This  analogy  was  first  suggested,  so  far  as  the  present  writer 
is  aware,  in  a  sermon  preached  many  years  ago  by  the  Rev. 
Charles  H.  Hall,  D.D.,  at  that  time  rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Epiphany,  Washington. 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  57 

uct.  In  the  very  deepest  and  profoundest  sense 
the  three  are  absolutely  one,  for  though  each  is 
different,  and  strikingly  different,  from  the  other 
two,  all  three  are  carbon — carbon  and  nothing 
else.  There  is  a  mystery  here  undoubtedly, 
something  that  eludes  and  bafifles  the  intelligence ; 
and  yet  so  closely  allied  is  it  to  the  other  and 
heavenly  mystery  which  we  are  studying  that 
the  terms  in  which  the  two  maybe  expressed  are 
actually  interchangeable.  What  is  meant  is  that 
one  may  take  a  carefully  drawn  statement  of  the 
dogma  of  the  Trinity,  and  by  writing  into  it  the 
names  of  the  three  allotropic  forms  of  carbon, 
produce  a  creed  which  every  chemist  will  be 
compelled  by  the  laws  of  his  science  to  acknowl- 
edge as  correct,  while  at  the  same  time  confess- 
ing that  it  involves  a  mystery  as  real,  so  far  as 
our  present  apprehension  goes,  even  if  not  as 
intrinsically  inexplicable,  as  the  mystery  of  the 
Trinity.  Even  if  we  take  for  a  standard  the  se- 
verely articulated  statements  of  the  Athanasian 
symbol,  the  analogy  is  found  to  stand  the  test, 
for  we  may  say,  and  say  truthfully,  diamond  is 
carbon,  graphite  is  carbon,  coal  is  carbon ;  yet 
they  are  not  three  carbons,  but  one  carbon, 
though  diamond  be  not  graphite,  nor  graphite 
coal,  nor  coal  diamond.  These  material  illustra- 
tions may  possibly  grate  harshly  upon  some 
minds;  but  when  we  remember  the  homely  ways 


58  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY, 

in  which  our  Lord  Himself  deigned  to  illustrate 
spiritual  verities,  we  ought  not  to  be  startled  at 
finding  the  diamond  and  the  sunbeam — which 
have  ever  been  accounted  the  very  synonyms  of 
preciousness — made  helpful  toward  the  better  un- 
derstanding of  the  name  of  God. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  charge  of  irreverence 
lies  more  justly  at  the  door  of  those  who  fail  to 
see  the  sanctity  latent  in  common  things,  the 
awfulness  and  the  mystery  of  our  daily  life. 

Passing  from  the  inorganic  to  the  psychical 
world,  from  the  universe  of  things  to  the  universe 
of  people,  some  find  an  analogue  of  the  Trinity 
in  the  very  constitution  of  the  human  soul.  This 
seems  a  natural  thing  to  do  when  we  recall  the 
memorable  sentence,  '*  In  the  image  of  God  made 
He  man."  If  the  soul  does  indeed  reflect  the 
lineaments  of  the  Maker  of  the  soul,  there  ought 
certainly  to  be  discernible  on  the  mirror's  face 
some  hint  at  least  of  that  threefoldness  which 
the  Church's  dogma  attributes  to  Almighty 
God. 

It  is  argued  that  to  a  complete  self-conscious- 
ness three  elements  are  essential :  first,  a  self  who 
knows ;  secondly,  a  self  who  is  known ;  and,  third- 
ly, a  self  who  gives  assurance  that  the  first  self  and 
the  second  self  are  one.  The  last  of  these  con- 
stituents of  a  perfect  self-consciousness  is  lacking 
in  the  little  child— 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  59 

"  The  baby  new  to  earth  and  sky, 
What  time  his  tender  palm  is  prest 
Against  the  circle  of  the  breast, 
Has  never  thought  that  '  this  is  I.'  " 

He  is  cognizant,  that  is  to  say,  of  his  projected 
self,  but  the  image  is  like  other  images  that  pass 
before  him ;  the  secret  of  his  personal  identity  he 
has  yet  to  learn.  Until  he  has  made  considera- 
ble progress  in  the  art  of  thinking,  he  invariably 
speaks  of  himself  in  the  third  person.* 

This  is  the  human  analogue  of  trinity  in  unity 
as  it  shadows  itself  forth  in  the  case  of  an  indi- 
vidual, and  is  illustrated  by  the  pure  laws  of 
thought.  Thus  presented,  it  makes  no  appeal 
whatever  to  the  affections.  But  it  is  otherwise 
if  we  start  from  that  larger  conception   of  man 

*  "  Thus  the  divine  personality,  in  the  light  thrown  upon  it  by 
the  revealed  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  is  seen  to  be  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  the  finite.  God  does  not  struggle  out  into  self-conscious- 
ness by  the  help  of  the  external  universe.  Before  that  universe 
was  created,  and  in  the  solitude  of  His  own  eternity  and  self-suffi- 
ciency, He  had  within  His  own  essence  all  the  conditions  of  self- 
consciousness.  .  .  .  Self-consciousness  is  trinal,  while  mere 
consciousness  is  dual.  The  former  implies  three  distinctions  ; 
the  latter  only  two.  When  I  am  conscious  of  a  tree,  there  is  first 
a  subject,  namely,  my  mind;  and  secondly  an  object,  namely,  the 
tree.  This  is  all  there  is  in  the  process  of  consciousness.  But 
when  I  am  conscious  of  myself,  there  is  first  a  subject,  namely, 
my  mind  as  a  contemplating  mind;  there  is  secondly  an  object, 
namely,  my  mind  as  a  contemplated  mind;  and  thirdly  there  is 
still  another  subject,  namely,  my  mind  as  perceiving  that  these  two 
prior  distinctions  are  one  and  the  same  mind." — Sheda's  ''Dog- 
matic Theology"  vol.  i,  p.  189. 


6o  THE   DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

which  insists  that  to  be  truly  known  he  must  be 
studied  in  his  social  relations.  In  the  very  same 
sentence  in  which  the  author  of  Genesis  affirms 
that  God  made  man  in  His  own  image,  it  is 
added  "male  and  female  created  He  them;" 
while  in  the  clause  that  follows  next  after,  we 
further  read,  "And  God  said  unto  them.  Be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply." 

Thus  early  is  the  family,  to  which  are  essen- 
tial the  three  elements  of  fatherhood,  motherhood, 
and  childhood,  recognized  as  the  true  completion 
of  man.  This  analogy,  unlike  the  purely  meta- 
physical one  based  upon  individual  self-conscious- 
ness, carries  us  over  into  the  realm  of  feeling,  and 
imparts  a  new  and  deep  significance  to  the  saying 
of  St.  John  the  Divine,  "  God  is  Love." 

A  modern  author,  almost  as  much  theologian 
as  poet,  seems  to  have  had  this  Trinitarian  para- 
ble in  mind  when  he  sketched  his  picture  of  a 
Christian  family  walking  to  church — 

"  The  prudent  partner  of  his  blood 
Leaned  on  him,  faithful,  gentle,  good, 
Wearing  the  rose  of  womanhood. 

* '  And  in  their  double  love  secure, 
The  little  maiden  walked  demure, 
Pacing  with  downward  eyelids  pure. 

"  These  three  made  unity  so  sweet, 
My  frozen  heart  began  to  beat, 
Remembering  its  ancient  heat."  * 

*  "The  Two  Voices." 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  6i 

Thus  much  for  the  analogies  by  aid  of  which 
theologians  have  sought  to  interpret  to  the  im- 
agination some  of  the  aspects  and  significances 
of  the  Christian  name  of  God.  They  are  con- 
fessedly imperfect  and  inadequate,  as  every  at- 
tempted illustration  of  the  deep  things  of  God 
must  necessarily  be,  but  they  are  not  for  that 
reason  wholly  without  value,  and  scarcely  de- 
serve the  contemptuous  disregard  with  which 
they  are  sometimes  set  aside. 

It  remains  to  speak  briefly  of  the  value  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  a  support  and 
stay  to  other  distinctively  Christian  beliefs, 
some  of  which  appear  to  make  a  more  direct 
appeal  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men 
than  this  one  itself  does.  Really  this  dogma  is 
the  keystone  of  the  arch  which  bridges  the  chasm 
between  two  worlds.  All  the  other  doctrines 
hold  their  place  and  keep  their  steadiness  by  dint 
of  the  stability  of  this.  This  is  the  secret  of  the 
position  assigned  to  Trinity  Sunday  in  the  scheme 
of  the  Christian  year.  It  brings  to  a  head  and 
sums  up  into  one  consistent  whole  all  that  has 
been  taught  from  Advent  onward  to  Whitsunday. 

Consider,  for  a  single  example,  the  doctrine  of 
the  Sacrifice  of  the  death  of  Christ,  than  which 
assuredly  no  one  of  the  great  announcements  of 
Christianity  has  more  profoundly  swayed  the  feel- 
ings of  mankind. 


62  THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY. 

Take  away  from  this  doctrine  the  support 
afforded  it  by  the  Trinitarian  conception  of  the 
dignity  of  the  sufferer,  and  the  Cross,  from  having 
been  the  manifestation  of  a  divine  self-sacrifice, 
the  pledge  and  witness  of  an  unconquerable  love, 
becomes  instead  a  terrible  suggestion  of  superhu- 
man cruelty  and  a  most  undivine  injustice.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  the  unrighteous  putting  to 
death  of  an  innocent  man  should  have  been  so 
acceptable  to  the  divine  Majesty  as  to  accomplish 
the  forgiveness  of  a  guilty  race.  If  it  was  a  true 
Son  of  God  who  suffered,  we  can  with  some  slight 
measure  of  clearness  discern  a  reason  for  the  po- 
tency of  His  death.  The  picture  of  an  angry  God 
looking  about  for  some  blameless  creature  upon 
whom  to  pour  out  the  full  measure  of  His  wrath 
never  would  have  converted  the  world.  It  has 
been  because  He  was  recognized  as  more  and 
other  than  a  creature  that  the  Christ  of  history 
has  shown  men  with  such  marvellous  effect  "  His 
hands  and  His  side."  It  has  been  by  a  sequence 
strictly  logical  that  the  rejection  of  the  sacrificial 
element  in  Christian  theology  has  always  fol- 
lowed so  swiftly  upon  the  relinquishment  of  the 
Trinitarian  ground. 

I  trust  I  have  said  enough  to  show  that  the 
end  and  purpose  of  the  dogma  of  a  divine  trinity 
in  unity  is  to  help  rather  than  to  baffle  the  mind 
of  the  believer  in  it.  It  is  an  endeavor  after  doc- 
trinal harmony,  an  end  not  wholly  attainable  so 


THE  DOGMA    OF   THE    TRINITY.  63 

long  as  the  human  intellect  is  curtained  as  it  is, 
and  yet  an  end  which  none  need  feel  ashamed  of 
having  aimed  at.  For  even  ineffectual  strivings 
after  a  better  apprehension  of  spiritual  truth  have 
their  value,  and  it  is  good  to  ponder  the  things 
eternal,  even  though  our  estimations  of  them  fall 
short  of  the  full  weight.  I  would  rather  '*  know 
in  part "  the  mountain  than  know  perfectly  the 
mole-hill. 

Do  you  assure  me  that  it  would  be  far  wiser 
to  devote  a  like  amount  of  energy  to  the  pro- 
motion of  practical  religion?  Practical  religion! 
Ah,  how  we  cheat  ourselves  with  phrases !  Show 
me  the  man  whose  soul  is  full  of  heavenly  imag- 
inings, who  dwells  largely  among  things  not  seen, 
whose  thoughts  often  take  flight  from  the  edges 
of  this  buying  and  selling  world,  that  they  may 
strike  out  into  the  pure  air  and  find  rest  upon 
the  wing  as  the  sea-birds  do,  and  I  will  show  you 
one  who  will  make  the  best  of  neighbors,  the  most 
public-spirited  of  citizens,  the  gentlest,  kindest, 
truest,  least  arrogant  of  men.  For,  after  all,  the 
great  thing  in  "  practical  religion  "  is  to  sink  self, 
and  in  this  task  we  succeed  best  at  moments  when 
most  we  realize  the  littleness  of  man,  the  majesty 
of  the  Almighty.  Therefore  with  angels  and 
archangels,  and  with  all  the  company  of  heaven, 
we  laud  and  magnify  thy  glorious  Name ;  ever- 
more praising  Thee  and  saying, 

^'Holy,  Holy,  Holy!" 


Zbc  IFncatnatioit 


The  Rev.  Alfred  G.  Mortimer,  D.D., 

Rector  of  S.  Marks  Churchy  Philadelphia, 


Zbc  irncarnatlon* 

As  we  scan  the  fields  of  the  Church's  history 
from  its  earliest  days  till  now,  the  names  of  three 
Apostles  rise  up  before  us,  representing  with  more 
or  less  accuracy  the  three  types  of  thought  which 
have  engrossed  the  mind  and  colored  the  view  of 
the  Christian  world :  S.  Peter,  S.  Paul,  and  S.  John. 

S.  Peter,  associated  with  the  idea  of  church  or- 
ganization and  government,  naturally  comes  first 
in  the  order  of  time ;  since  the  first  work  was 
necessarily  the  spread  and  development  of  the 
Church — for  of  Christianity  as  dissociated  from 
the  Church,  as  some  would  teach  it  now,  I  fail  to 
discover  the  faintest  sign  in  antiquity. 

This  idea  is  the  most  prominent  for  fifteen  cen- 
turies, often  unduly  pressed  and  unwarrantably 
developed  and  unjustly  claiming  the  shelter  of  S. 
Peter's  name  for  much  that  he  would  have  been 
the  first  to  repudiate. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  we  see  a  great  revolu- 
tion in  the  thought  and  life  of  the  Church,  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  which  claimed  as  its  authority  the  teach- 
ings of  S.  Paul.  From  church  poHty  the  minds  of 
men  were  turned  to  Soteriology,  to  the  great  doc- 
trine of  the  Atonement  and  the  results  which  were 
thought  to  flow  from  it ;  and  again,  as  in  S.  Peter's 


68  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

case,  much  was  deduced  from  S.  Paul's  words 
at  which  he  would  himsetf  probably  have  stood 
aghast. 

Our  lives  are  cast  in  the  beginning  of  a  third 
period,  which,  when  its  history  comes  to  be  writ- 
ten, will,  I  think,  be  found  to  have  been  as  great 
a  revolution  in  religious  life  and  thought  as  the 
Reformation  was,  though  I  hope  and  believe  less 
marred  by  human  passion  and  sin,  more  truly  a 
period  of  progress  and  peace. 

And  this  third  period  looks  for  its  guidance 
chiefly  to  the  writings  of  S.  John. 

We  are  beset  to-day  with  perplexities,  not  new, 
and  perhaps  not  greater  than  in  the  past,  but  pre- 
senting themselves  under  new  aspects,  and,  from 
the  increased  facilities  of  communication  which 
the  press  affords,  forced  upon  our  notice  with  a 
vehemence  and  persistence  from  which  there  is 
no  escape.  Questions  crave  an  answer,  prob- 
lems demand  a  solution,  and  we  are  beginning 
to  find  the  answer  in  the  fuller  realization,  the 
clearer  grasp  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. 
We  are  learning  that  that  is  the  centre  of  all  rev- 
elation, of  all  truth,  and  that  many  of  our  difficul- 
ties, both  theological  and  practical,  are  the  results 
of  the  failure  to  recognize  the  true  position  and 
significance  of  the  Incarnation,  or  of  an  attempt  to 
substitute  for  it  some  other  centre  around  which 
to  harmonize  Christian  truth. 


THE  INCARNA  TION,  69 

As  we  look  back  on  the  difficulties  which  beset 
astronomers  before  the  sixteenth  century,  from 
the  acceptance  of  the  Ptolemaic  theory,  and  their 
attempt  to  bring  all  things  into  relation  with  the 
earth  as  the  centre  of  the  solar  system,  and  ob- 
serve how  most  of  them  disappeared  as  soon  as 
the  true  centre  of  our  planetary  system  was  rec- 
ognized ;  so  we  see  how  for  many  years  the  the- 
ology of  our  Church  has  been  made  to  centre 
around  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  which  is 
not  the  true  centre,  but  itself  the  necessary 
sequence  of  the  Incarnation  in  its  relation  to  sin. 
And  the  discovery,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of  the  In- 
carnation as  the  true  centre,  has  swept  away 
many  of  the  greatest  difficulties  of  theology,  and 
promises,  as  we  grasp  it  more  fully  and  realize  its 
consequence  more  clearly,  to  be  the  solution  of 
much  that  is  perplexing  us  now  in  social  as  well 
as  in  theological  problems. 

Our  difficulties  arising  from  a  false  view  of  the 
Atonement  have  led  to  wrong  and  perverted  views 
both  of  God  and  man.  And  the  popular  Protes- 
tantism of  the  day  invites  the  attack  of  unbe- 
lievers, who  naturally  score  an  easy  victory  over 
what  is  itself  a  perversion  and  distortion  of  the 
truth. 

The  Incarnation  is  to  us  the  great  revelation  of 
God  ;  for  in  Christ  ''  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead    bodily-wise."      (Col.   ii.   9.)      But    the 


70  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

Incarnation  is  also  the  great  revelation  of  man,  of 
his  strength,  of  his  possibilities  of  good,  man  as 
God  made  him,  and  meant  him  to  be ;  for  in 
fallen  man  we  have  to  study  human  nature 
marred  and  distorted  by  sin,  which  is  an  element 
foreign  to  man  as  God  purposed  him  to  be.  Now 
in  studying  any  intricate  piece  of  mechanism,  it  is 
an  immense  help  at  the  start  if  we  know  the  pur- 
pose for  which  it  was  made. 

The  Incarnation  is  the  revelation  of  the  pur- 
pose for  which  man  was  created,  the  goal  for 
which  he  must  aim,  the  perfection  to  which  he 
must  attain.  And  in  a  clearer  comprehension  of 
man  himself,  the  heart-searching  problems  of 
man's  relation  to  his  fellow  man,  in  capital  and 
labor,  in  poverty  and  riches,  in  politics  and  so- 
ciety, find  their  only  true  solution. 

The  theology  of  the  Incarnation  then  must  be 
the  theology  of  our  Era,  and  to  its  study  we  may 
turn,  not  merely  as  to  an  intellectual  exercise  of 
great  interest,  but  as  to  a  revelation  of  life  of  im- 
mense practical  and  present  value. 

What  then  is  this  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  ? 
In  its  most  concise  statement  it  is  contained  in 
the  proposition  of  S.  John, ''  The  Word  was  made 
Flesh,"  and  the  whole  of  his  Epistles  and  Gospel 
are  but  an  amplification  of  this  text. 

In  order  to  understand  what  took  place  at  the 
Incarnation,  we   must  first    strive   to  grasp    the 


THE  INCARNATION,  71 

relation  in  which  God  stood  to  the  world  and  to 
man  before  that  event ;  in  a  word,  we  must  know 
something  of  the  Gospel  of  Creation,  for  without 
a  clear  view  of  this,  we  are  likely  in  many  impor- 
tant points  to  misread  the  Gospel  of  Redemption. 

Briefly,  we  may  put  the  opinion  of  theo- 
logians on  this  matter  somewhat  as  follows: 
When  God  in  His  infinite  love  willed  to  create. 
He  created  all  things  for  a  perfect  end ;  for  this 
His  attribute  of  Omnipotence  demands,  but  this 
ultimate  perfection  was  to  be  attained  by  a  law  of 
progress,  the  stages  of  which  may  be  read  in  the 
Annals  of  the  Universe.  Confining  ourselves  as 
we  must  to  our  planet,  we  may  perhaps,  for  con- 
venience' sake,  group  the  stages  of  this  progress 
into  four  great  epochs  or  chapters.  I.  The  de- 
velopment of  inorganic  matter  till  it  is  fitted  to 
receive  and  sustain  organic  life.  H.  The  develop- 
ment of  this  organic  life  until  man  appears.  HI. 
Commencing  with  man,  the  unfolding  and  growth 
of  moral  life  until  culminating  in  the  Incarnation. 
IV.  The  introduction  and  operation  of  the  Divine 
life. 

It  has  been  said  that  all  Creation  is  a  ladder  by 
which  we  may  climb  up  into  the  heart  of  God, 
and  see  there  His  love  for  us,  and  this  is  also  true 
when  regarded  from  a  different  point  of  view.  For 
that  Creation  which  comes  forth  from  God  by  the 
fiat  of  His  will  progresses  step  by  step,  until  in 
the  Incarnation  it  returns  to  Him  again. 


72  THE  INCARNATION. 

For  as  each  act  of  creation  was  on  God's  part 
an  act  of  voluntary  self-limitation,  and  the  climax 
of  that  self-limitation  was  reached  in  the  Incarna- 
tion, when  God  the  Word  emptied  Himself,  and 
took  upon  Him  the  form  of  servant ;  so  after  the 
Atonement  had  been  made  and  mankind  (and  in 
man  ah  creatures)  had  been  redeemed  by  the 
glorification  and  exaltation  of  Christ's  Humanity, 
the  self-limitation  is  effaced  again,  and  God  be- 
comes all  in  all.  In  God's  original  purpose,  or, 
as  S.  John  Damascene  calls  it,  His  antecedent  Will, 
God  willed  everything  to  march  steadily  forward 
step  by  step  to  perfection,  the  material  universe 
finding  its  crown  and  flower,  its  true  representa- 
tive, in  Man,  who,  created  in  the  image  of  God 
(and  intended  by  his  own  progress  to  gain  the  like- 
ness of  God),  was  to  be  the  instrument  of  God's 
supreme  act  of  love  in  the  Incarnation.  Man  by 
his  body  summing  up  all  the  lower  kingdoms  of 
Creation,  by  the  spirit,  which  he  shared  with  the 
angeHc  natures,  linked  to  God,  and  through  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  holding  close 
communion  with  God ;  and  when  man  had 
reached  a  certain  perfection  here,  the  climax  of 
God's  purpose  would  have  been  the  Incarnation, 
which,  without  suffering  or  humiliation,  would 
have  been  the  taking  of  man,  and  m  him  all  crea- 
tion, into  God,  not  by  any  pantheistic  idea  of 
absorption,  but  by  the  fulfilment  of  God's  original 


THE  INCARNA  TION.  73 

purpose,  by  which  the  creature  should  attain  its 
ultimate  perfection  in  Christ,  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  to  its  own  immense  and  final  beatitude.  This 
would  have  made  the  Incarnation  the  last  act  in 
the  great  drama,  the  addition  of  the  capping  stone 
to  the  great  structure,  the  realization  of  the  great 
Ideal  ;  for  in  the  Word,  God  saw  all  creation 
ideally  perfect. 

We  read  the  history  of  the  earlier  chapters  in  the 
science  of  geology,  the  record  of  the  marvellous  pro- 
gress of  our  globe.  We  see  the  development  of  the 
creature  through  the  various  kingdoms  of  mineral, 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  culminating  in  Man,  in 
whom  we  see  a  new  departure,  the  introduction  of 
a  conscious  moral  life;  and  that  progress  would  have 
gone  on  in  the  wonderful  development  of  moral  life, 
so  far  as  we  know,  but  for  two  catastrophes,  two 
interruptions  which  led  to  some  modifications,  if 
one  may  use  the  term,  of  the  original  march  of 
progress. 

These  two  interruptions  were  the  Fall  of  the 
Angels  and  the  Fall  of  Man,  the  introduction  of  sin 
(which  means  philologically  **  missing  the  mark  "), 
and  which  results  necessarily  in  confusion,  dis- 
order, and  the  loss  of  that  communion  with  God 
which  our  first  parents  had. 

For  while  in  one  sense  the  whole  creation  was 
outside  of  God  before  the  Incarnation,  which  was 
therefore  as  necessary  for  the  angels  as  for  Man, 


74  THE  JNCARNA  TION. 

yet  when  God  created  Man  in  His  own  image, 
a  very  close  communion  between  God  and  Man 
existed  through  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
this  was  what  was  lost  by  the  Fall,  and  besides, 
disorder  and  confusion  took  the  place  of  harmony 
and  peace. 

While  this  was  no  part  of  God's  original  pur- 
pose or  Antecedent  Will,  it  was  present  as  a  pos- 
sibility to  God's  foreknowledge,  and  was  provided 
for  by  His  Consequent  Will.  For  when  He  willed 
to  create  moral  beings  with  a  power  of  choice, 
that  they  might  love  God  and  choose  good,  there 
was  of  necessity  the  possibility  of  evil.  Without 
this  power  of  choice,  without  this  possibility  of 
evil,  we  might  do  good,  but  we  could  not  love 
good;  we  might  be  excellent  machines,  we  could 
not  be  moral  agents. 

So  we  are  told  that  before  the  Fall,  in  the  time 
of  man's  innocency,  there  were  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden  two  trees  —  the  tree  of  life  and  the  tree  of 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil ;  the  tree  of  life 
representing  the  fellowship  and  communion  with 
God  which  was  to  be  at  once  man's  joy  and  the 
means  of  his  progress;  the  tree  of  knowledge 
representing  that  knowledge  of  evil  which  is  nec- 
essary, that  we  may  deliberately  honor  God  by 
choosing  good,  by  choosing  Him.  Evil  must  be 
present,  as  a  thing  known  and  contemplated,  as 
God  knows  and  contemplates  it  only  to  hate  it, 


THE  incarnation:  75 

never  to  experience  it.  Adam  was  not  satisfied 
thus  to  contemplate  it  and  to  hate  it,  but  wished 
to  taste  it,  to  experience  it.  In  a  word,  by  his  de- 
hberate  act  he  chose  it  and  he  fell,  and  in  the  ex- 
perience of  evil  he  lost  the  fruit  of  that  other  tree, 
the  tree  of  Hfe,  the  power  of  communion  with 
God.  His  nature  lost  its  sustaining  power  and 
collapsed;  there  was  not  the  introduction  of  any- 
thing new  in  human  nature,  but  there  was  the 
withdrawal  of  the  fellowship  with  God,  the  loss 
of  the  continual  operation  of  the  Spirit,  and  the 
introduction  of  disorder  and  struggle  between  the 
various  powers  of  his  nature  which  before  had  been 
harmoniously  balanced. 

From  the  Fall  a  new  preparation  for  the  Incar- 
nation became  necessary,  and  began  in  the  train- 
ing and  development  of  the  human  race  for  this 
end.  First  in  the  selection  of  one  particular  race 
trained  by  type,  prophecy,  theophany,  and  legis- 
lation, to  be  the  instrument  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  God's  loving  purpose.  But  our  view 
would  be  very  partial  if  we  limited  this  prepara- 
tion to  Judaism.  Everywhere  it  was  going  on, 
in  the  natural  theology  as  well  as  in  the  art  and 
science,  the  literature  and  civilization  of  the  vari- 
ous races  of  the  world.  For  as  S.  John  says,  the 
Word  was  "  the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  World,"  and  the  Eastern 
mystics,  the  poets  of  the  Vedas,  the  astronomers 


76  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

of  Chaldea,  and  the  priests  of  Egypt  alike  were 
learning,  though  with  difificulty,  to  spell  out  God's 
revelation  in  nature.  Greek  Philosophy  and  Art 
and  Literature,  Roman  Polity  and  Commerce  alike 
were  being  prepared  by  God's  Providence  for  the 
revelation  of  the  Incarnate  Word. 

The  Greeks  were  not  only  to  supply  the  most  per- 
fect language  the  world  has  ever  known  to  enshrine 
His  revelation,  but  also  to  train  men's  minds  to  re- 
ceive and  apply  it ;  for  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
the  great  fathers  of  the  Church,  such  as  Clement  and 
Origen,  Athanasius  and  Augustine,  Gregory  and 
Basil,  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  Greek  phi- 
losophy, and  testify  what  it  had  done  for  their 
souls  in  preparing  them  to  receive,  and  afterward 
to  teach  the  religion  of  the  Incarnation.  Even 
those  splendid  Roman  roads,  which  are  still  me- 
morials of  the  energy  and  thoroughness  of  that 
great  nation,  and  along  which  its  Commerce  went 
forth  through  the  World,  even  they  themselves 
are  the  literal  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of 
Isaiah  xl.  3,  ''  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for 
our  God  " ;  for  they  were  trodden  by  the  feet  of 
Apostles  and  Missionaries  bearing  the  Gospel  of 
the  Incarnation  to  the  ends  of  the  Earth.  The  very 
difficulty  which  has  been  suggested  by  some  scep- 
tics, that  there  are  parallelisms  and  resemblances  be- 
tween the  moral  precepts  of  some  earlier  religions 


THE  INCARNATION.  77 

and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  though  the  former 
are  but  faint  shadows  of  that  great  reahty,  so  far 
from  being  difficulties  to  the  beheverin  the  Incar- 
nation, are  but  proofs  of  the  truth  of  S.  Paul's 
words,  that  among  all  nations  *'  the  living  God 
left  not  Himself  without  witness."  While  those 
adumbrations  of  Christian  doctrine,  practice,  and 
ritual,  which  may  be  traced  with  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctness in  almost  every  ancient  system  of  religion, 
are  the  very  things  to  which  the  theologian  of  the 
Incarnation  points  as  the  proof  that  all  human  na- 
ture was  being  trained  to  receive  the  Gospel  of  the 
Incarnation,  that  the  Word  was  indeed  the  Light  of 
the  World.  Socrates  and  Heraclitus  with  all  en- 
lightened heathen,  Justin  Martyr,  the  first  apolo- 
gist, claims  as  practically  Christians,  because  illumi- 
nated by  the  true  light ;  and  may  we  not  add  to  the 
list  Plato?  Recall  that  splendid  passage  in  his 
Phoedrus,  where  he  describes  the  gods  in  solemn 
procession  mounting  to  the  topmost  vault  of  heaven 
and  taking  their  places  upon  its  dome,  gazing  over 
the  infinite  depths  of  perfect  Truth,  and  finding  in 
the  spectacle  the  support  of  the  fulness  of  their 
being ;  and  again  in  the  Republic,  that  mar- 
vellous passage  where  he  declares  the  fate  of  the 
perfectly  righteous  man  in  this  world,  and  says 
that  he  will  be  "  scourged,  racked,  fettered,  will 
have  his  eyes  burnt  out,  and  at  last,  after  suffering 
every  kind  of  torture,  will  be  crucified." 


78  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

Yes,  we  recognize  and  claim  every  advance 
towards  truth  in  all  lands,  even  where  mingled 
with  error,  as  the  work  of  the  Divine  Word  in  the 
World,  co-operating  with  human  reason,  inspiring 
some  like  the  Jews  with  a  thirst  for  holiness,  others 
like  the  Greeks  with  intellectual  eagerness  after 
truth,  and  preparing  all  for  the  revelation  of  the 
Incarnation. 

But  after  the  Fall  of  man,  instead  of  the  Incar- 
nation being,  as  it  would  have  been  but  for  sin,  the 
final  step  in  a  perfected  Humanity,  by  which  Man 
was  translated,  so  to  speak,  into  heaven  itself,  and 
in  him  Creation  returned  into  God,  from  Whom  it 
had  come  forth,  and  Who  in  His  love  had  origi- 
nally called  it  into  being.  Instead  of  the  Incarna- 
tion being  the  last  act  in  the  Gospel  of  Creation, 
it  came  as  the  foundation  of  a  further  Gospel  of  Re- 
demption, rendered  necessary  by  the  fact  that  from 
sin  the  moral  progress  of  Humanity  had  practical- 
ly come  to  a  standstill,  and  the  bitter  experience  of 
the  race  had  brought  home  to  human  consciousness 
that  it  was  powerless  to  help  itself,  and  that  with- 
out God's  intervention  and  aid,  it  could  advance 
no  further  towards  the  goal  of  perfection.  The 
Incarnation  then  became — in  addition  to  its  origi- 
nal purpose  of  taking  man  and  in  him  all  Creation 
into  God, — also  the  means  by  which  what  was 
lost  through  the  Fall  was  to  be  restored.  Divine 
Life  was  introduced  to  aid  the  weakened  moral 


THE  INCARNA  TION.  79 

life  of  man,  and  the  arrested  progress  recom- 
menced, though  still  fettered  by  the  results  of  sin. 
And  from  this  by  necessary  sequence  the  Atone- 
ment followed,  a  superinduced  result  of  a  cause 
not  originally  present,  viz.:  Sin. 

But  what  was  the  Incarnation  as  a  fact  ?  The 
taking  of  Man  into  God,  not  by  a  fusion  of  the 
Human  and  Divine  natures,  but,  while  each  nature 
was  kept  perfectly  distinct,  by  the  uniting  of 
both  in  the  Person  of  the  Word,  the  Eternal  Son  of 
God,  the  Second  Person  of  the  ever  Blessed  Trinity. 
The  means  was  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  the  substance  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary, 
by  which  act  the  Word  became  the  Son  of  Man, 
without  being  the  Son  of  a  man;  and  so  took 
into  Himself  Humanity  without  taking  Adam's 
taint  of  original  sin.  This  Virgin-birth  is  not 
only  an  Article  of  Faith  in  the  Church,  but 
it  also  commends  itself  to  our  reason  as  the 
only  way,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  by  which 
the  purpose  of  the  Incarnation  could  be  accom- 
plished, and  Humanity  taken  into  God  without 
taking  also  sin.  And  let  me  observe  in  passing 
that,  so  far  from  the  doctrine  of  Parthenogenesis 
being  contrary  to  reason,  it  is  not  even  contrary 
to  experience  ;  instances  of  both  entire  and  partial 
parthenogenesis  are  found  in  many  species  in 
nature,  the  most  familiar  being  that  of  the  queen 
bee  and  the  drones.     It  is,  I  say,  so  far  as  we  can 


8o  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

see,  the  only  way  in  which  the  problem  could  be 
solved,  whereby  a  new  Head  of  Humanity  should 
be  produced  in  such  a  manner  that,  while  the  moral 
entail  of  descent  from  Adam  should  be  broken 
and  thus  the  taint  of  sin  avoided,  yet  the  connec- 
tion with  Adam  should  remain  intact  through  the 
female  line,  in  all  that  appertained  to  the  essen- 
tials of  Humanity ;  the  fecundating  power  being 
supplied  directly  by  the  Lord  and  Life-giver,  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

And  so  the  Creed  tells  us  that  our  Lord  was 
made  "  Man,''  not  "■  a  man."  It  was  Manhood, 
not  a  man  (although  He  may  be  spoken  of  as  a 
man),  human  nature,  not  a  human  person,  that  the 
Son  of  God  took  into  union  with  Himself,  and  it 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  any  clear  under- 
standing of  the  Incarnation  to  grasp  this. 

By  human  nature  we  mean  all  those  quahties 
which  men  have  in  common  ;  by  a  human  person 
we  mean  a  separate  individual,  possessing  that  in- 
dividual and  sovereign  power  of  action  in  the  soul 
to  which  we  give  the  name  of  personality. 

Now  Adam  did  not  transmit  to  his  descendants 
his  personality,  for  that  is  incommunicable,  but 
his  nature.  No  human  being  can  part  with  his 
own  personality  or  share  it  with  another. 

When  Adam  begat  sons  and  daughters  he 
passed  on  to  his  offspring  his  own  nature  in  its 
fulness,  but  his  personahty  remained  exclusively 


THE  INCARNATION.  8 1 

his  own  forever,  and  his  descendants  had  each 
their  own  personaHty.  Personality  then  is  no  es- 
sential part  of  human  nature,  but  human  nature  is 
organized  on  a  new  personality  in  every  individual, 
and  therefore  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  understand, 
that  in  order  to  cut  off  the  entail  of  that  tainted 
moral  nature  which  we  derive  from  Adam,  and  in 
order  to  make  the  Hypostatic  Union  of  the  Di- 
vine and  Human  natures  possible,  the  germ  of 
Humanity  which  was  derived  from  Adam  through 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  was  vitalized  by  the  direct 
operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Life- 
giver,  and  instead  of  being,  like  ours,  centred  in  a 
new  human  personality,  was  taken  up  into  the  Per- 
sonality of  the  Word.  So  that  all  that  was  essen- 
tial to  Humanity  was  taken  up  by  the  Second 
Adam,  and  the  differences  between  our  Lord's 
Humanity  and  ours,  that  He  had  no  human  father, 
no  human  person,  and  no  sin,  are  none  of  them 
differences  which  touch  in  any  way  the  integrity 
and  perfection  of  His  Human  Nature. 

Around  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation  in  the  early 
ages  of  the  Church  four  false  propositions  arose, 
and  took  shape  as  definite  heresies,  which  were  con- 
demned after  thorough  examination  by  the  first 
four  General  Councils ;  the  opposite  truth  in  each 
case  being  defined  authoritatively  by  the  Church. 

First  there  was  the  Arian  heresy,  which,  deny- 
ing the  truth  that  Christ  was  really  God,  attacked 


82  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

the  perfection  of  His  Divine  Nature.  This,  as 
you  are  aware,  was  refuted  by  the  Council  of 
Nicea,  A.D.  325,  which  defined  His  Divine  Nature 
in  the  Creed  which  we  recite,  by  the  use  of  the 
word  Homo-ousios,  "  of  the  same  substance  "  as 
the  Father. 

Then  came  a  reaction,  and  ApoUinarius,  while 
accepting  the  Nicene  decree  as  to  the  Divine 
Nature  of  our  Lord,  denied  the  reality  and  perfec- 
tion of  His  Humanity,  by  asserting  that  He  had  no 
human  soul  or  "  nous,''  the  place  thereof  being  sup- 
plied by  the  person  of  the  Word.  Now  this  was 
taking  away  from  the  integrity  of  our  Lord's 
Human  Nature,  since  a  human  or  rational  soul  is 
an  essential  part  of  humanity,  and  indeed  is  that 
which  differentiates  man  alike  from  the  angels  and 
the  beasts.  This  heresy  was  condemned  by  the 
Second  General  Council,  that  of  Constantinople, 
A.D.  381. 

Then  arose  the  heresy  of  Nestorius,  who,  while 
accepting  the  decrees  of  Nicea  and  Constantinople 
as  to  the  perfection  of  the  two  natures  of  our 
Lord,  taught  that  He  had  also  two  personalities, 
a  human  personality  as  well  as  a  Divine  personal- 
ity, thus  denying  any  real  union  between  God  and 
Man  in  the  Incarnation.  This  was  condemned  by 
the  Third  General  Council,  that  of  Ephesus,  A.D. 
431.  And  as  a  reaction  from  this,  Eutychts 
taught  that  as  there  was  but  one  Person,  so  there 


THE  INCARNA  TION.  83 

was  but  one  Nature  in  our  Lord,  and  that  this  was 
a  sort  of  fusion  of  the  Human  and  Divine  in  the 
formation  of  a  third  composite  nature.  This 
heresy  was  condemned  by  the  Fourth  General 
Council,  that  of  Chalcedon,  a.d.  451. 

Hence  we  have  in  our  Lord  two  perfect  natures, 
Human  and  Divine,  distinct  and  yet  united  hy- 
postatically  in  one  Divine  Personality  in  the  Per- 
son of  Our  Lord. 

When  we  have  reached  this  definition  of  the 
Hypostatic  Union,  a  further  question  arises,  which 
is  one  of  the  problems  to  which  the  minds  of  theo- 
logians are  being  especially  directed  in  our  own 
time,  and  that  is,  as  to  the  accommodation  of  these 
two  natures  to  one  another,  so  as  to  make  this 
Hypostasis  or  Incarnation  possible ;  what  did  it 
involve  to  the  Divine  Nature,  to  God  the  Son  ? 
We  can  easily  comprehend  that  as  Humanity  was 
created  in  the  image  of  God,  it  might  be  ultimately 
taken  into  God ;  in  a  word,  that  as  it  was  created 
for  the  Incarnation,  it  would  easily  accommodate 
itself  to  the  Divine  Nature  ;  but  the  difficulty  is  to 
grasp  the  fact  that  the  Divine  shrunk  itself,  as  it 
were,  to  the  conditions  of  the  inferior  nature  which 
it  assumed.  This,  like  every  other  aspect  of  the 
Incarnation,  we  find  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  type,  as  for  instance  in  I.  Kings  xvii. 
21,  where  we  read  that  Elijah  stretched  (or  meas- 
ured) himself  three  times  on  the  dead  child  of  the 


84  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

widow  of  Zarephath,  and  still  more  strikingly, 
in  IL  Kings  iv.  34,  where  Elisha,  so  to  speak,  ac- 
commodated and  contracted  himself  to  the  small 
form  of  the  son  of  the  Shunamite,  putting  *'  his 
mouth  upon  his  mouth,  and  his  eyes  upon  his 
eyes,  and  his  hands  upon  his  hands."  The  little 
light  which  Scripture  throws  on  this  mysterious 
subject  comes  from  three  passages,  Phil.  ii.  6,  7: 
"Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  a 
prize  to  be  snatched  at  to  be  equal  with  God,  but 
emptied  Himself,  and  took  upon  Himself  the  form 
of  a  servant."  The  second,  H.  Cor.  viii.  9 : 
*'  Who  being  rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor," 
and  the  third,  S.  John  xvii.  5  :  **  And  now,  O 
Father,  glorify  Thou  me  with  Thine  own  Self 
with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the 
world  was."  From  the  expression  used  by  S. 
Paul  in  the  first  of  these  passages,  ''  He  emptied 
Himself,"  the  subject  is  commonly  spoken  of  as 
the  Kenosis  of  our  Lord,  His  Self-emptying. 
The  question  is  a  very  difficult  one,  and  we  are 
helped  neither  by  the  discussions  of  Councils,  nor 
by  the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  v/ho  with  most 
theologians  till  our  day  contented  themselves  with 
making  the  Kenosis  consist  in  the  laying  aside  the 
Glory  of  the  Divinity,  and  in  the  assumption  of 
the  humiliation  of  the  Humanity  ;  but  while  this  is 
undoubtedly  true,  some  theologians  of  the  present 
day  feel  it  to  be  very  inadequate,  and  are  asking 


THE  INCARNA  TION.  85 

for  a  more  complete  investigation  of  the  question. 
The  most  familiar  theories  are  those  of  Gess, 
Martensen,  Thomasius,  Ebrard  and  Pabst,  rep- 
resenting almost  every  shade  of  opinion,  Pabst 
being  a  Roman  Catholic;  and  it  is  easier  to  criti- 
cise these  theories,  and  show  where  they  are  un- 
tenable, and  even  heretical,  than  it  is  to  construct 
one  which  shall  answer  all  the  conditions  of  the 
question. 

Some  would  say,  why  discuss  at  all  a  question 
so  mysterious  ?  Would  it  not  be  wiser  and  more 
reverent  to  pass  it  over,  as  so  many  theologians 
have  done?  Is  it  a  matter  of  any  practical  value 
to  Christianity  to-day?  My  answer  is,  Yes;  that 
is  the  only  reason  why  it  must  be  faced ;  for  if  we 
believe  that  the  Incarnation  contains  in  itself  the 
answer  to  many  of  the  perplexities  of  human  life 
to-day,  we  must  teach  the  perfect  Humanity  of  our 
Lord  without  surrendering  His  perfect  Divinity  on 
the  one  hand,  or  on. the  other  allowing  our  concep- 
tion of  that  Divinity  so  to  overshadow  His  Human 
life  as  to  make  it  unreal.  It  is  the  neglect  of  this 
which  is  leading  the  Rationalistic  School  in  gur 
Church  to-day  in  their  Humanitarianism  to  drift 
so  perilously  near  to  Arianism,  as  a  reaction  from 
that  obscuration  of  the  perfect  Humanity  by  a 
view  of  the  Divinity,  which,  because  it  overlooks 
the  Kenosis,  robs  the  work  of  our  Lord  of  much  of 
its  power  to  appeal  to  our  sympathy  and  to  help 


^6  THE  INCARNATION. 

US  in  our  needs,  because  it  seems  to  rob  His 
Human  life  of  its  reality. 

And  while  most  of  us  realize  the  terrible  dan- 
gers which  threaten  us  from  Rationalistic  Chris- 
tianity, many  of  us  do  not  see  that  it  gains 
strength  from  our  not  putting  forth  in  all  its 
completeness  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  as 
defined  by  the  first  four  General  Councils ;  and 
some  who  pride  themselves  on  their  ultra  ortho- 
doxy, in  their  fear  of  Rationalism,  by  ignoring 
our  Lord's  Kenosis,  are  practically  teaching  a  sub- 
tle form  of  either  Eutychianism  or  Nestorianism. 
For  there  are  two  views  which  are  open  to  criti- 
cism as  tending  to  these  two  heresies,  and  which 
are  held  by  some  even  of  those  who  think  that 
Arianism  is  the  danger  of  the  day. 

There  is  that  view  which,  by  attributing  Divine 
Omniscience  to  the  human  intelligence  of  the 
Child  Jesus,  is  dangerously  near  to  such  a  confu- 
sion of  the  natures  as  approaches  the  Eutychian 
error  and  practically  results  in  the  loss  of  the  H  uman 
in  the  Divine.  While  others,  in  avoiding  this,  and 
dwelling  upon  the  natural  human  ignorance  of  the 
Child  of  Mary,  imply  that  He  was  not  yet  really  the 
Word  Himself,  but  only  joined  to  the  Word  in 
such  a  way  as  to  allow  the  Word  Himself  to  live 
on  outside  of  the  human  being  to  which  He  was 
joined  ;  on  the  one  hand  suggesting  a  double  per- 
sonality, which  is  distinctly  Nestorian,  and  on  the 


THE  INCARNA  TION,  87 

Other  reducing  the  earthly  Hfe  of  Jesus  to  a  mere 
Docetic  illusion,  which  satisfies  neither  the  crav- 
ings of  our  nature  for  a  Divine  Saviour,  nor  the 
definitions  of  the  Church  as  to  the  Incarnation. 

Most  of  those  v/ho  are  brought  into  real  con- 
tact with  the  theological  controversies  of  the  day 
will,  I  think,  recognize  these  dangers,  and  feel 
that  to  meet  them  we  must  teach,  in  all  its  com- 
pleteness, the  Faith  as  defined  by  the  General 
Councils :  and  that  we  cannot  do  this,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  thought  of  to-day,  without  recog- 
nizing, as  a  real  fact,  that  Kenosis  of  the  Divine 
Word  which  S.  Paul  teaches,  and  which  is  implic- 
itly contained  in  the  authoritative  condemnation 
of  the  heresies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 
At  the  end  of  a  lecture  like  this,  I  can  do  no 
more  than  try  to  state  some  of  the  conditions  of 
the  problem,  first  reminding  you  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  grasping  with  our  finite  minds  any  Divine 
truth  in  all  its  eternal  fulness,  much  less  that  truth 
which  S.  Paul  calls  "  the  great  mystery  of  Godli- 
ness, God  manifested  in  the  flesh,"  and  the  further 
impossibility  of  finding  human  language  adequate 
to  the  expression  of  Divine  truth  of  such  tran- 
scendent magnitude.  We  who  live  in  time  are 
not  capable  of  grasping  the  relations  between 
time  and  eternity  ;  so  that  the  practical  treatment 
of  the  Kenosis  must  be  confined  to  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  conditions  of  our  Lord's  real  life  on 


88  THE  INCARNA  TION. 

earth,  without  dogmatizing  on  what  that  involved 
to  His  eternal  life  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father; 
only  insisting  that  when  the  Creed  tells  us  that 
*'  He  came  down  from  Heaven,"  we  mean  that 
there  was  a  real  coming  down,  and  not  merely 
that,  to  an  unchangeable  Divine  consciousness, 
another  human  consciousness  was  added,  but  that 
there  was  a  real  emptying  of  Himself  of  some- 
thing He  possessed.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to 
observe  that,  as  S.  Paul  points  out,  the  change 
involved  in  this  Kenosis  is  a  change  in  form,  not 
in  essence,  and  that  while  on  the  one  hand  a  limita- 
tion of  the  attributes  is  demanded,  yet  it  was 
a  voluntary  self-limitation,  and  all  the  time  that 
those  Divine  powers  were  quiescent  within  Him, 
they  were  still  His,  and  had  He  chosen  to  revoke 
this  self-restraint,  there  was  nothing  outside  of  His 
own  will  to  hinder  Him.  Yet  while  acknowledg- 
ing this  voluntary  self-limitation  of  Christ,  we 
must  preserve  in  thought  His  relation  both  to 
the  essential  life  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  to  the 
universe  of  which  He  is  the  continual  support, 
whose  unity  and  order  He  continually  maintains. 
So  we  acknowledge  and  adore,  from  the  first 
moment  of  His  Conception,  the  Child  of  Mary  as 
perfectly  Divine,  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
dweUing  in  Him  bodily-wise,  and  yet  as  fulfilling  all 
the  conditions  of  His  gradually  unfolding  Human 
life.     We  see  Him  hungry  and  thirsty  and  weary, 


THE  mCARNA  TION.  89 

tempted,  suffering,  dying,  dead  !  ''  Perfect  God 
and  perfect  Man;  of  a  reasonable  soul  and  human 
flesh  subsisting.  Who,  although  He  be  God  and 
Man;  yet  He  is  not  two,  but  one  Christ!"  So 
far  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.  One  word  in 
conclusion  as  to  its  practical  bearing  on  the  diffi- 
culties and  problems  of  to-day. 

The  theology  of  the  Incarnation  hails  as  a 
friend,  not  as  an  enemy,  the  man  of  science 
patiently  striving  to  wrest  from  nature  some  of 
her  secrets,  and  she  gratefully  adds  to  the  sum  total 
of  truth  his  contribution,  however  small.  While  la- 
menting his  personal  loss  in  his  own  inability  to  see 
Divine  truth,  she  delights  to  trace  all  the  discoveries 
of  science  to  that  Light  which  lighteth  every  man, 
to  that  Providence  which  educates  the  world  for  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  Christ !  The  theology  of  the 
Incarnation  takes  the  lover  of  Art  by  the  hand 
and  leads  him  through  the  galleries  of  Europe, 
wnere  he  sees  how  Art,  as  the  handmaid  of  the 
Word  made  Flesh,  grew  and  developed  from  its 
first  crude  efforts  on  the  walls  of  the  Catacombs, 
in  Cloister  and  Church,  till  in  the  Vatican  she  bids 
him  stand  before  its  highest  conception,  in  the 
Transfiguration  of  Raphael,  and  Domenichino's 
Last  Communion  of  S.  Jerome,  and  points  out  to 
him  that  it  was  not  by  portraying  the  realistic  or 
rather  materialistic  side  of  nature  in  such  a  way 
as  to  appeal  to  the  baser  passions  of  man's  sensu- 


90  THE  INCARNA  TJON. 

ality,  not  by  descending  to  the  mere  depicting  of 
man  in  his  sin,  but  by  representing  the  highest 
ideals  of  Humanity  which  gather  around  the  re- 
Hgion  of  the  Incarnation,  that  Art  learned  its 
powers  and  found  its  goal ! 

The  theology  of  the  Incarnation  points  the 
masses  who  are  struggling  with  poverty,  misery  and 
sin,  to  its  Founder,  Who,  though  He  was  rich,  for 
our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we,  through  His  pov- 
erty, might  be  rich  ;  Who  gave,  when  challenged  at 
a  critical  moment  of  His  career,  as  the  distinguish- 
ing mark  of  the  truth  of  His  mission,  this  law, 
"  To  the  poor  the  Gospel  is  preached." 

The  theology  of  the  Incarnation  approaches  the 
laborer  in  his  contests  with  capital,  in  his  hard- 
ships and  toils,  as  the  religion  of  the  Carpenter's 
Son  Who  ennobled  work  and  taught  men  to 
labor  and  to  wait ! 

To  the  people  groaning  under  the  wrongs  and 
injustice  of  political  tyranny,  it  comes  and  shows 
One  Who  gathered  around  Him  poor  fishermen, 
and  taught  them  the  principles  which  have  since 
emancipated  the  world ! 

To  the  Social  Reformer  burning  with  indigna- 
tion at  the  degradation  of  morals,  it  comes  with 
the  example  of  Him  Who,  to  lift  man  from  his 
misery  and  sin,  laid  down  His  life  alike  for  friend 
and  foe. 


THE  INCARNATION.  91 

There  is  not  one  phase  of  human  progress,  not 
one  step  forward  towards  Goodness,  Beauty,  or 
Truth,  of  which  the  theology  of  the  Incarnation 
does  not  claim  that  Christ  is  the  Inspiration  and 
the  Incarnation  the  Beacon  Light ! 


^be  atonement 


LECTURE  IV. 
THE    ATONEMENT, 

BY 

REV.   JOHN   H.    ELLIOTT,    S.T.D., 
Rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Ascension,  Washington,  D.C. 

.  In  the  tenth  book  of  "the  City  of  God,"  St. 
Augustine  quotes  from  a  philosopher  the  com- 
plaint that  "  there  was  wanting  some  universal 
method  of  delivering  men's  souls,  which  no  sect 
of  philosophers  had  ever  yet  found  out."  St. 
Augustine  replies  that  the  universal  method  of 
delivering  men's  souls,  which  no  philosopher  had 
found  out,  had  been  taught  by  Divine  authority. 
Divine  authority  had  taught  that  the  "  Lord  Jesus 
took  our  manhood  upon  Himself,  and  in  that 
manhood  took  this  priesthood  upon  Himself,  and 
sacrificed  Himself  even  to  the  death  for  us. 
This,"  says  he,  "  is  the  universal  way  of  the  soul's 
freedom,  that  is  granted  unto  all  nations  out  of 
God's  mercy,  the  knowledge  whereof  comes  and 
is  to  come  to  all  men.'* 

"The   knowledge   whereof   is  to  come  to  all 
men."     It  has  come  to  us.     On  a  continent  un 


g6  THE  ATONEMENT, 

known  to  the  great  Latin  Father — in  a  "  city  "  of 
which  he  had  no  prophetic  vision,  we  have  as- 
sembled to  think  about  "  the  universal  method  of 
freeing  men's  souls  "  by  the  atonement  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  We  too  have 
felt  the  need  of  the  soul's  deliverance  from  the 
burden  and  bondage  of  sin.  We  have  not  found 
"  deliverance  "  in  any  school  of  philosophy.  Like 
St.  Augustine,  we  yield  to  the  Divine  authority, 
and  trust  those  "  divinely  guided  prophets  and 
apostles,"  whom  he  calls,  "holy  immortals  in  re- 
ligion." We  have  received  across  the  centuries 
the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints.  We 
cherish  as  the  charter  of  our  spiritual  emancipa- 
tion the  Catholic  dogma  of  the  atonement. 

If  my  first  duty  in  discussing  the  Catholic 
dogma  of  the  atonement  is  to  ask  what  is  dogma? 
I  shall  answer  that  question  in  the  words  of  one 
of  the  great  advocates  and  exponents  of  dogma. 
**  Dogma,"  says  the  late  Canon  Liddon,  "  is  essen- 
tial Christian  truth  thrown  by  authority  into  a 
form  which  admits  of  its  permanently  passing 
into  the  understanding,  and  being  treasured  by 
the  heart  of  the  people.  Dogma  proclaims  that 
Revelation  does  mean  something  and  what.  Ac- 
cordingly, dogma  is  to  be  found  no  less  truly 
in  the  volume  of  the  New  Testament  than  in 
Fathers  and  Councils.  The  Divine  Spirit,  speak- 
ing through  the  clear  utterances  of    Scripture 


THE  ATONEMENT.  97 

and  the  illuminated  and  consenting  thought  of 
Christendona,  is  the  real  author  of  essential  dog- 
ma. And  men  of  to-day  who  are  calling  in  ques- 
tion the  principles  of  dogma  are  callirg  in  ques- 
tion a  central  inalienable  feature  of  Christianity 
which  has  been  always  accepted  alike  by  Rome 
and  Lambeth  and  Lambeth  and  Geneva,  as  a 
common  premise,  as  an  axiomatic  principle."  '^ 

But  your  subject  this  evening  is  the  "  Catholic 
Dogma  of  the  Atonement;"  and  so  another  pre- 
liminary question  is,  Where  shall  you  and  I  look 
for  and  find  *' Catholic  dogma?"  I  trust  that 
you  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say  that,  as  loyal 
/^churchmen,  we  look  for  and  find  Catholic  dogma 
in  that  volume  which,  in  its  completeness,  I  shall 
call  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Our  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  was  designed  to  be  also  our 
Book  of  Commion  FaitJi  and  Common  Doctrine, 
Surely  we  believe  that  no  Catholic  dogma  has 
been  excluded  from  its  pages,  that  no  un-Catho- 
lic  dogma  has  been  suffered  to  intrude  there. 

In  that  Book  dogma  abounds — abounds  in 
Creed  and  Collect,  in  triumphant  Te  Deum  and 
lowliest  litany.  "  There,"  to  repeat  the  words  of 
Canon  Liddon,  you  find  *'  essential  Christian  truth 
thrown  by  authority  into  a  form  which  admits  of 
its  permanently  passing  into  the  understanding 
and  being  treasured  by  the  heart  of  the  people." 

*  Liddon's  "  University  Sermons"  (Sermon  Fourth). 


98  THE   ATONEMENT. 

It  is  indeed  dogma,  ''  essential  Christian  truth," 
which  chiefly  in  that  Book  interests  the  under- 
standing and  gains  the  hearts  of  the  people.  It 
is  because  of  dogma  in  its  pages  that  there  throb 
there  "  the  profound  emotion,  the  grave  elo- 
quence, the  noble  mindedness,  the  restrained  en- 
thusiasm of  heroic  and  poetic  souls."  And  an 
oft-quoted  canon  subscribed  by  the  Bishops  of 
both  Provinces  in  the  Church  of  England  A.D. 
1 571,  seems  to  give  the  sanction  of  their  authority 
to  the  statement  that  we  are  to  look  to  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  for  Catholic  dogma.  The  can- 
on enjoins  upon  "  preachers  that  they  shall  in 
the  first  place  be  careful  never  to  teach-  anything 
from  the  pulpit,  to  be  religiously  held  and  be- 
lieved by  the  people,  but  what  is  agreeable  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  and  col- 
lected out  of  that  very  doctrine  by  the  Catholic 
Fathers  and  Ancient  Bishops;  and  since  these  ar- 
ticles of  the  Christian  religion,  which  have  been 
agreed  upon  by  the  Bishops  in  a  lawful  and 
holy  synod,  are  beyond  doubt,  collected  out  of 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, and  agree  in  all  things  with  the  heavenly 
doctrine  contained  in  them,  and  since  the  Book 
of  Public  Prayers,  and  the  Book  of  the  Consecra- 
tion of  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  contain 
nothing  opposed  to  that  doctrine,  whoever  are 
sent  to  teach  the  people  shall  confirm  the  author- 


THE  ATONEMENT.  99 

ity  and  truth  of  those  articles."*  Does  not  the 
canon  seem  to  imply  that  the  rule  here  laid  down 
for  the  pulpit  is  the  rule  which  had  been  followed 
in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  ?  Does  it  not 
seem  to  teach  that  for  dogma  in  the  pulpit  and 
for  dogma  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  there 
was  one  rule:  "  It  must  be  agreeable  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  and  collected 
out  of  that  very  doctrine  by  the  Catholic  Fathers 
and  Ancient  Bishops  ?  " 

Turning  then  to  no  new  guide  but  to  the  famil- 
iar Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  we  love  so 
well,  we  find  there  a  doctrine  of  the  atonement  of 
which  we  may  say:  First,  that  it  is  "an  harmoni- 
ous balance  of  complementary  truths."  Secondly^ 
that,  founded  on  Divine  authority,  it  accepts  mys- 
tery instead  of  banishing  mystery  by  human  sys- 
tem. Thirdly,  that  it  pays  due  and  consistent 
honor  to  Holy  Scripture;  and.  Fourthly,  that  its 
fulness  satisfies  the  desire  for  an  "  universal 
method  of  freeing  men's  souls." 

I.  In  the  first  place  the  Catholic  dogma  of  the 
atonement,  as  enshrined  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  is  an  ''  harmonious  balance  of  complemen- 
tary truths — of  truths  which,"  in  the  words  of 
Canon  Mozley,  "have  the  point  of  view  which 
brings  them  all  together  in  the  invisible  world." 
On  authority  it  presents  to  faith  truths  as  com- 

*  Sparrow's  "  Collection." 


TOO  THE  ATONEMENT, 

plementary  which  are  often  treated  as  contradic- 
tory one  of  another.  It  includes  the  love  and 
mercy  of  God  the  Father  in  giving  His  Only  Son 
to  suffer  death  on  the  Cross  for  our  redemption, 
and  yet  the  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  world 
which  the  Son  made  there  by  His  one  oblation 
of  Himself,  once  offered.  It  includes  in  their  in- 
tegrity the  truth  and  value  of  the  Incarnation, 
that  the  sufferings  of  Christ  were  the  "  sufferings 
of  One  in  whom  we  live  and  who  lives  in  us," 
and  yet  the  substitution  of  Christ  as  the  "very 
Paschal  Lamb  which  was  offered  for  us  and  hath 
taken  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  It  includes 
in  the  atonement  a  ransom  for  the  souls  of  men, 
and  yet  a  moral  and  mystical  influence  07i  the 
souls  of  men.  It  gives  full,  hearty  recognition 
to  each  one  of  these  complementary  truths.  It 
does  not  select  one,  and  by  a  logic  here  misap- 
plied press  it  to  the  exclusion  of  the  complemen- 
tary truth  which  rests  on  the  same  authority. 
Nor  does  it  presume  to  make  a  logical  adjustment 
of  the  complementary  truths,  and  thus  mutilate 
and  impoverish  them.  Why  impoverish  by  state- 
ment of  finite  logic  what  Hooker  calls  "  the  In- 
finite worth  of  the  Son  of  God  ?  "  Why  narrow 
the  Divine  breadth  of  God's  wisdom  in  redemp- 
tion ?  Is  it  not  like  Him  that  His  thoughts  should 
not  be  as  our  thoughts  ? 

I.  Let  me  select  from  the  several  pairs  of  com- 


THE  ATONEMENT.  loi 

plementary  truths  just  stated  the  first  pair,  that 
I  may  contrast  the  partial  statements  made  by 
some  leaders  or  schools  or  epochs  in  theology 
with  the  Catholic  teaching  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  In  the  Prayer  of  Consecration,  in 
the  order  for  the  administration  of  the  Holy 
Communion  are  these  words:  "All  Glory  be  to 
Thee  Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  for 
that  Thou  of  Thy  tender  mercy  didst  give  Thine 
Only  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  suffer  death  upon  the 
Cross  for  our  Redemption,  who  made  there  by 
His  one  oblation  of  Himself  once  offered  a  full, 
perfect,  and  sufificient  sacrifice  oblation  and  satis- 
faction for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  Here 
we  celebrate  on  the  one  hand  the  mercy  of  the 
Father  in  giving  His  Only  Son,  and  yet  on  the 
other  hand  the  satisfaction  made  by  the  Son  in 
His  willing  oblation  of  Himself.  The  blending 
of  these  truths  in  one  statement  is  the  more  sig- 
nificant, when  we  remember  to  whom  thcsatisfac- 
tion  on  the  Cross  was  made.  "  The  death  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  paid  the  debt  which  man  owed  and 
which  man  of  himself  could  not  pay  to  the  Jus- 
tice and  Sanctity  of  God.  His  obedience  to  the 
Divine  will  took  the  form  of  expiation,  and  be- 
came a  satisfaction  for  sin  to  the  All-Just.""* 
And  yet,  in  our  communion  office,  each  truth  is 
recognized  and  enshrined  in  its  integrity,  in  Divine 
*  Canon  Liddon, 


I02  7^ HE   ATONEMENT. 

fulness — in  absolute  completeness.  We  speak  of 
the  mercy  of  Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father, 
in  the  gift  of  His  Son,  of  His  tender  mercy.  We 
praise  Him  for  His  mercy  :  "All  glory  be  to 
Thee  Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  for 
that  Thou  of  Thy  tender  mercy  didst  give  Thine 
Only  Son."  In  like  absolute  completeness  the 
satisfaction  made  on  the  Cross  is  stated :  "  Who 
made  there  by  His  one  oblation  of  Himself,  once 
offered,  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient  .  .  .  satis- 
faction for  the  sins  of  the  world  " — "  full,  per- 
fect, sufficient,"  as  against  all  limitations  of  the 
atonement.  Side  by  side  in  one  sentence  are 
presented  the  complementary  truths —the  tender 
mercy  of  the  Father  and  the  satisfaction  made 
by  the  Son. 

How  different  from  this  the  partial  statements 
often  advocated  by  leaders,  or  schools,  or  epochs 
in  theology!  These  two  truths  are  treated  as 
exclusive  one  of  another — as  contradictory,  not 
complementary.  At  one  time  the  "  satisfaction  " 
is  accepted  as  the  great  revealed  verity,  and  a 
logic  too  presumptuous  in  its  dealings  with  things 
revealed  would  argue  out  of  existence  the  ten- 
der mercy  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  At  another 
time  the  "  tender  mercy  "  is  accepted  as  the  great 
revealed  verity,  and  the  same  too  presumptuous 
logic  insists  that  there  is  no  need  of  "  satisfac- 
tion."    Doubtless,  in  these   later  centuries  and 


THE  ATONEMENT.  103 

until  this  present  generation,  the  doctrine  of  the 
satisfaction  of  Christ  has  been  too  exclusively 
presented.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  worth  or  the 
completeness  of  the  satisfaction  has  been  exag- 
gerated. It  is  "  full,  perfect,  sufficient "  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world.  But  the  satisfaction 
made  and  the  law  satisfied  have  been  used  as  a 
premise  for  obscuring  the  tender  mercy  and  the 
love  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  Popular  and  un- 
skilful advocates  of  that  perfect  redemption  and 
satisfaction — rationalists  dishonoring  Revelation, 
though  they  knew  it  not — have  represented  the 
Heavenly  Father  as  granting  pardon  passively 
or  even  reluctantly  in  view  of  the  legal  demands 
of  the  "agony  and  bloody  sweat."  Learned  ad- 
vocates, too,  holding  high  and  honored  places  in 
schools  of  instruction,  give  definitions  of  the 
atonement  which  contain  no  hint  that  God  so 
*'  loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  Only-Begotten 
Son  "  for  our  redemption.  Listen  to  the  follow- 
ing definition  by  an  honored  Professor  in  this 
city:  "The  atonement  is  the  satisfaction  of  Di- 
vine Justice  for  the  sin  of  man  by  the  substituted 
penal  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God."  True,  the 
same  teacher  elsewhere  says :  "  The  mercy  of  God 
consists  in  substituting  Himself  Incarnate  for 
His  creature  for  purposes  of  atonement."  But 
the  definition  of  the  atonement,  formally  and 
pointedly  introducing  a  hundred  pages  of  the  his- 


I04  THE  ATONEMENT. 

tory  of  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement — even  if 
it  correctly  states  the  doctrine  of  satisfaction — 
absolutely  omits  all  reference  to  the  love  and 
mercy  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

What  wonder  that  there  has  been  a  recoil  and 
reaction;  and  who  can  wonder,  with  the  history 
of  human  speculation  on  Divine  Mysteries  before 
him,  that  the  mistakes  which  had  been  made  on 
the  one  side  are  being  repeated  on  the  other  ? 
Let  us  be  thankful,  indeed,  for  the  recognition 
and  assertion  of  the  tender  mercy  of  our  Hea- 
venly Father  in  the  atonement.  But  we  would 
be  more  thankful  to  the  many  noble  souls,  whose 
mission  it  may  have  been  to  rescue  from  partial 
obscuration  this  truth,  if  in  their  advocacy  they 
would  avoid  the  mistakes  which  made  a  rescue 
of  this  truth  necessary.  The  advocates  of  the 
satisfaction  of  Christ  obscured  the  mercy  of  God  ; 
the  advocates  of  the  tender  mercy  of  the  Hea- 
venly Father  obscure  the  satisfaction  of  Christ. 
Sometimes  they  do  more  than  obscure  it.  More 
grateful  would  we  be  to  them  if,  still,  holding  with 
Bishop  Butler,  that  "  God  hath  mercifully  provided 
that  there  should  be  an  interposition  to  prevent 
the  destruction  of  human  kind,"  they  would  also 
hold  with  Bishop  Butler  the  "satisfaction"  of 
Christ.  Indeed,  they  would  the  more  celebrate 
the  tender  mercy  of  God,  if  in  the  same  rejoicing 
accents   they  celebrate  the  satisfaction    on   the 


THE  ATONEMENT.  105 

Cross.  That  has  befallen  the  exclusive  advocates 
of  either  of  these  two  truths  which  usually  befals 
those  who  undertake  to  improve  on  the  Revela- 
tion of  God.  They  despoil  the  favorite  truth 
which  they  would  enrich.  The  satisfaction  of 
Christ  the  more  magnifies  the  law  and  makes  it 
honorable  when  it  magnifies  the  Love  that  sought 
to  save  but  would  not  save  with  dishonor  to  the 
law — and  for  the  tender  mercy  of  God — the  love 
of  God — the  Apostle  declares  that  Herein  is  love — 
that  God  loved  us  and  gave  His  Son  to  be  a  propi- 
tiation for  our  sins.  It  is  because  our  Eucharistic 
office  enshrines  both  these  truths,  and  thus  mag- 
nifies each  that  it  summons  us  to  such  profound 
and  grateful  adoration. 

2.  In  like  manner  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  includes  the  second  pair  of  comple- 
mentary truths  above  mentioned.  It  includes  both 
the  substitution  of  Christ — that  ''  He  was  the  very 
Paschal  Lamb  which  was  offered  for  us,"  and  also 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  "  He  took 
to  Himself  not  some  one  person  among  men,  but 
the  nature  that  is  common  to  all,"  so  that  His 
sufferings  **  were  the  sufferings  of  One  in  whom 
ive  live  and  who  lives  in  us.'"  May  not  the  doc- 
trine of  substitution,  which  has  been  misstated 
as  the  arbitrary  punishment  of  one  innocent  man 
for  guilty  men,  be  relieved  of  some  objections  by 
an  effort  not  to  present  a  solution  of  it,  but  to 


io6  THE  ATONEMENT. 

emphasize — after    some    words    of    comment — a 
Divine  statement  of  the  doctrine  ? 

"His  voluntary  death,"  says  Hooker,  "pre- 
vailed with  God,  and  had  the  force  of  an  expia- 
tory sacrifice."  Voluntarily  He  partook  of  flesh 
and  blood  and  took  His  place  in  the  Judgment 
Hall,  and  when  the  accusing  witnesses  could  not 
agree,  and  legally  criminating  testimony  there 
was  none,  the  August  Victim  by  His  own  volun- 
tary confession  called  down  upon  Himself  the 
sentence  of  death,  so  that  the  Jews  leading  Him 
to  Pilate  said:  "  By  our  law  He  ought  to  die,  be- 
cause He  made  Himself  the  Son  of  God."  He 
loved  us,  and  gave  Himself  for  us — How  willing 
the  Innocent  One! 

But  then  the  Jews  remind  us  of  what  in  our 
thoughts  on  the  atonement  we  often  forget,  that 
He  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  these  two  things 
follow : 

He  is  the  God-Man,  and  He  took  to  Himself 
**  not  some  one  person  among  men,  but  the  nature 
which  is  common  to  all ;  "  "  since  the  children  are 
partakers  of  flesh  and  blood  He  likewise  took 
part  in  the  same."  There  is  no  arbitrariness  in 
the  substitution.  The  nature  that  sinned  was  on 
the  Cross.  "  Taking  to  Himself,"  says  Hooker, 
"  our  flesh  and  by  His  Incarnation  making  it  His 
own  flesh  He  had  no^  of  His  own,  although  /ro7^ 
us,  what  to  offer  unto  God  for  us."     And  then, 


THE  ATONEME^'T.  107 

too,  because  He  is  the  Son  of  God  it  follows  that 
the  Divine  Victim — the  substitute  came  out  of 
the  Bosom  of  the  Father  to  be  propitiated,  and 
God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  Him.  And 
whatever  mystery  there  may  be  in  the  innocent 
suffering  for  the  guilty,  surely  when  the  innocent 
victim  comes  forth  in  love  and  as  the  gift  of  love 
from  the  very  Bosom  to  be  propitiated,  the  Gift 
is  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  the  Giver  worthy  of 
all  adoration.  And  one  step  more  led  by  an  Apos- 
tle's hand  "  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself."  The  Innocent  One  is  God 
in  self-sacrifice  for  man's  salvation.  "  This,"  says 
one  whom  I  am  glad  to  quote,"  is  not  Patripassion 
doctrine — it  is  the  truth  which  the  Patripassionist 
misstates."  * 

And  now  recall  the  Divine  Statement  of  which 
I  have  spoken.  It  is  St.  Paul  who  speaks  as 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  is  looking  at  the 
atonement  from  above.  We  look  at  it  too  much 
from  beneath. f  St.  Paul  speaks  as  though  caught 
up  again  to  Heaven.  ''  All  things  are  of  God,"  he 
says.  The  context  shows  that  he  speaks  now  of  the 
"all  things"  not  of  creation,  but  of  redemption: 
"All  things  are  of  God."     God  "hath  reconciled 

*  Dr.  Wm.  R.  Huntington. 

f  "  If  it  might  be  said,  without  irreverence,  the  Catholic  doc- 
rine  thus  teaches  us  to  approach  the  Cross  from  above  more 
naturally  than  from  below."— -Canon  Liddon. 


io8  THE  ATONEMENT. 

US  to  Himself  by  Jesus  Christ  " — "All  things  are 
of  God;"  He  *' hath  given  to  us  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation  " — "  All  things  are  of  God  " — "  God 
was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Him- 
self"—"All  things  are  of  God  "—God  is  "not 
imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them."  "All 
things  are  of  God — God  hath  committed  unto  us 
the  word  of  reconciliation."  "  All  things  are  of 
God."  "  God  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us 
who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  "  God  in  Him."  "^  What,  then, 
shall  we  say  to  these  things  ?  Is  it  not  "  our  duty 
to  render  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks  to 
Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  for  that 
He  hath  given  His  Son  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
to  die  for  us."  "We  should  always  remember 
the  exceeding  great  love  of  our  only  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  thus  dying  for  us." 

3.  The  Catholic  dogma  of  the  Atonement  in- 
cludes also  the  third  pair  of  complementary  truths 
stated  above.  It  includes  a  ransom  for  the  souls 
of  men,  and  yet  a  moral  and  mystical  influence 
on  the  souls  of  men.  On  this  point  I  must  speak 
briefly.  The  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
admits  and  welcomes  the  most  fervid  word  ever 
said  on  the  moving,  constraining,  melting,  re- 
generating life-giving  power  of  Christ  crucified. 
But  it  has  equal  and  grateful  welcome  for  the 

*  I  Cor.  V.  18-21. 


THE   ATONEMENT.  1 09 

truth  that  Christ  on  the  Cross  gave  Himself  a 
ransom  for  men — *'  redeemed  "  "  bought  them  " 
by  His  blood.  In  his  first  Epistle  St.  J.ohn 
writes:  "  In  this  was  manifested  the  love  of  God 
towards  us,  because  that  God  sent  his  only- 
begotten  Son  into  the  world  that  we  might  live 
throiigJi  hitny  But  in  the  next  verse  following 
he  writes:  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  love  God, 
but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins^  * 

The  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  here  advocated 
is  not  a  compromise,  but  a  comprehension;  it  is 
not  eclectic,  but  Catholic.  The  Church  bows  be- 
fore the  manifold  mystery  of  the  Atonement  as 
she  bows  before  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation. 
Hooker  has  told  us  how  '*  four  most  famous  An- 
cient General  Councils  "  have  set  forth  the  com- 
plementary truths  with  respect  to  the  Person  of 
our  Lord,  "in  four  words:  truly,  perfectly,  indi- 
visibly,  distinctly.  The  first  applied  to  His  being 
God,  and  the  second  to  His  being  man ;  the  third 
to  His  being  of  both  one,  and  the  fourth  to  His 
still  continuing  in  that  one  Both."  No  conciliar 
authority  has  put  forth  so  comprehensive  and  con- 
cise a  statement  of  the  complementary  truths  of 
the  Atonement.  But  probably  every  such  truth, 
as  may  be  seen  by  the  quotations  which  follow, 
can  be  found  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer: 
*  St.  John,  iv.  18. 


no  THE   ATONEMENT. 

"  \A'ho  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation  came 
down  from  Heaven  and  was  incarnate  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  was  made 
man  and  was  crucified  also  for  us  under  Pontius  Pi- 
late." "Almighty  God  and  Most  Merciful  Father, 
who  of  Thine  Infinite  Goodness  hast  given  Thine 
Only  and  dearly  beloved  Son  to  be  our  Redeemer 
and  the  author  of  everlasting  life,''  "  Almighty 
God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  who  hast  purchased  to 
Thyself  an  universal  Church  by  the  precious  blood 
of  Thy  dear  Son."  "  Almighty  God,  who  hast 
given  Thine  Only  Son  to  be  unto  us  both  a  sacri- 
fice for  sin  and  also  an  example  of  Godly  life." 
"Almighty  God,  who  hast  given  Thy  only-be- 
gotten Son  to  take  our  nature  upon  Hiiny  "  The 
Son  of  God  did  vouchsafe  to  yield  up  His  soul  on 
the  Cross  for  your  salvation."  "  O  Saviour  of  the 
world,  who  by  Thy  Cross  and  precious  blood  hast 
redeemed  us."  "  Help  thy  servants  whom  thou 
hast  redeemed  by  Thy  precious  Blood."  "  If 
he  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  hath  suffered  death 
upon  the  Cross  for  him  ajid  shed  His  blood  for  his 
redemption''  "They  are  the  sheep  of  Christ, 
which  He  bought  with  His  death,  and  for  whom 
He  shed  His  blood."  "  His  meritorious  Cross  and 
passion^  whereby  alone  we  obtain  remission  of  sins 
and  are  made  partakers  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  "Who  truly  suffered,  was  crucified, 
dead  and  buried  to  reconcile  His  Father  to  us,  and 


THE   ATONEMENT.  Ill 

to  be  a  sacrifice  not  only  for  original  guilt,  but 
also  for  actual  sins  of  menj"  ""  Through  the  satis- 
faction of  Thy  Son  our  Lord."  "  The  offering 
of  Christ  once  made  is  that  perfect  redemption, 
propitiation,  and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world,  both  original  and  actual;  and  there 
is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin  but  that  alone." 
II.  That  the  revelation  of  the  Atonement  brings 
together  with  light  mystery,  that  it  presents  com- 
plementary truths  whose  boundary  lines  we  can- 
not adjust,  is  what  we  might  expect.  ''  Not  only 
the  reason  of  the  thing,  but  the  whole  analogy  of 
Nature,  should  teach  us  not  to  expect  to  have  the 
like  information  concerning  the  Divine  conduct 
as  concerning  our  duty.  Though  we  are  suffi- 
ciently instructed  for  the  common  purposes  of 
life,  yet  it  is  almost  an  infinitely  small  part  of 
natural  providence  which  we  are  at  all  let  into. 
The  case  is  the  same  with  regard  to  Revelation. 
The  doctrine  of  a  Mediator  between  God  and 
man  relates  only  to  what  was  done  on  God's  part 
in  the  appointment  and  on  the  Mediator's  in  the 
execution  of  it.  For  what  is  required  of  us  in 
consequence  of  this  gracious  dispensation  is  an- 
other subject  in  which  none  can  complain  for 
want  of  information."*  To  these  words  add  the 
words  of  Lord  Bacon :  "  We  ought  not  to  strive 
after  a  scheme  of  divinity  which  is  perfect  and 
*  Bishop  Butler. 


112  THE  ATONEMENT. 

complete  In  all  its  parts.  For  he  that  will  reduce 
knowledge  into  a  scientific  form  will  make  it 
round  and  uniform;  but  in  theology  many  things 
must  be  broken  off,  abruptly  and  concluded  with, 
*  Oh,  the  depths  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of 
God — how  unsearchable  are  His  jugdments  and 
His  ways  past  finding  out.'  "  "  The  Mediator  is 
the  great  mystery  and  perfect  centre  of  all  God's 
ways  with  His  creatures."  As  we  kneel  be- 
fore the  Cross,  we  bow  before  the  mystery  of 
the  Holy  Incarnation — the  mystery  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  We  hear  the  Mediator's  first  word  upon 
the  Cross:  "Father,  forgive  them."  Hours  pass 
by,  and  we  hear  Him  say:  "  It  is  finished."  But 
meanwhile  darkness  has  veiled  the  Cross.  "  What 
is  going  on  beyond  that  darkened  sky  we  see  not." 
III.  In  the  next  place  may  it  not  be  claimed, 
for  the  complementary  balance  of  truths  here  ad- 
vocated, that  by  dealing  more  consistently  than 
the  logical  systems  of  the  Atonement  with  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  it  does  greater  honor  to  the 
Scriptures.  If  in  formulating  my  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement,  I  honor  the  Scriptures  when  they 
say,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,"  why  should  not 
I  pay  equal  honor  when  they  say,  "The  Son  of 
Man  came  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  ?  " 
If  I  accept  the  words  "  He  hath  made  Him  to  be 
sin  for  us  who  knew  no  sin,"  why  should  I  not 
hear  also  the  words  "  God  was  in  Christ  recon- 


THE  ATONEMENT.  1 13 

ciling  the  world  unto  Himself  ?  "  What  sort  of 
■consistency  is  that  which  bows  before  one  de- 
liverance of  the  witness,  and  turns  the  back  upon 
another  deliverance  of  the  same  witness  upon  the 
same  subject  ?  The  principle  of  a  truly  Catholic 
Church  is  to  "  hear  meekly  "  both  testimonies,  and 
''receive  them  with  pure  affection."  And  for 
that  principle  she  reverently  pleads  the  highest 
authority — the  example  of  Him  who,  in  the 
crisis  of  His  temptation,  to  the  words  It  is 
written,  replied,  "  *  It  is  written  again'  It  is 
written  "  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge  con- 
cerning thee,  and  they  shall  bear  thee  in  their 
hands  lest  at  any  time  thou  dash  thy  foot  against 
a  stone."  "And  therefore,"  says  logic,  "cast 
thyself  down."  But  there  is  a  complementary 
truth.  "  It  is  writteji  again  "  "  Thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the  Lord  thy  God  "  by  rash  presumption. 
Our  Lord  did  not  deny  that  angels  had  charge 
concerning  Him.  Presently  angels  came  and 
ministered  to  Him.  But  He  balances  the  one 
Scripture  against  the  other.  What  the  gracious 
Head  of  the  Church  did  with  reference  to  the 
Old  Testament  the  Church  reverently  does  with 
reference  to  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New. 
If  tempted  to  go  astray  in  doctrine  by  the  words 
It  is  written,  her  reply  is,  It  is  written  again. 
It  is  written  "  By  the  which  ivill  we  are  sanc- 
tified."    But  it  is  written  again,  "  By  the  offering 


114  THE  ATONEMENT. 

of  the  Body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all."  It  is 
written  in  the  Parable  of  the  Lost  Son,  *'  The 
Father  had  compassion  and  ran  and  fell  on  his 
neck."  But  it  is  written  again,  "  I  am  the  Way 
and  the  Truth  and  the  Life:  no  man  cometh 
unto  the  Father  but  by  me." 

Still  further,  it  is  worthy  of  reverent  notice 
that,  in  the  volume  of  Scripture,  He  who  said 
to  His  apostles  :  ''  I  have  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now,"  did  say  things 
which  are  germs  of  almost  every  leading  truth 
in  the  Catholic  dogma  of  the  Atonement.  He 
Himself  gives  the  reason  why  He  withholds 
many  things — His  apostles  could  not  *^  bear  them 
now."  He  spoke  of  suffering,  death,  resurrection  ; 
Simon  Peter  rebuked  Him.  And  yet,  apart 
from  what  He  said  of  the  Father's  love  and  His 
Divine  Sonship  and  union  with  man  and  renewal 
of  man,  listen  to  His  words:  "This  is  my  Blood 
of  the  New  Testament,  which  is  shed  for  many 
for  the  remission  of  sins."  "The  Son  of  Man 
came  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many."  See 
how  the  "  Notes  "  of  Atonement  are  given  in  these 
words!  Here  is  the  "ransom;"  here  "substitu- 
tion "  is  taught  by  the  strongest  of  all  particles. 
Here  are  "  Blood,"  "  Life,"  "  Sins,"  "  remission  " 
— the  "shedding  of  blood" — the  "giving  of  His 
Life."  Here  high  indeed  the  place  in  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Son  of  Man  which  is  assigned  to  the 


THE  ATONEMENT.  "5 

gift  of  His  Life  for  men:  ''He  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  and  to  give  His 
Life  a  ransom  for  many."  May  we  not  add  the 
key-word  of  the  Publican's  prayer:  ''Be  merci- 
ful"—be  "propitiated  ?"  Is  there  not  here  the 
germ  and  justification  of  the  many  witnesses  to 
propitiation  and  reconciliation  which  testify  in 
the  pages  of  the  Epistles  ? 

IV.  It  is  an  argument  for  the  Catholic  doc- 
trine of  the  Atonement ;  it  gives  it  a  pathetic 
meaning,  that  it  fulfils  with  Divine  fulness 
and  tenderness  the  "  unconscious  prophecies  of 
heathendom."  It  has  seemed  to  be  the  almost 
universal  conviction  that  the  "method  of  de- 
livering men's  souls "  must  include  expiatory 
sacrifice.  It  is  declared  to  be  notorious,  the 
result  of  grave  historical  induction,  that  "  all  na- 
tions before  the  time  of  Christ  entertained  the 
notion  that  the  displeasure  of  the  offended  deity 
was  to  be  averted  by  the  sacrifice  of  an  animal, 
and  that  to  the  shedding  of  its  blood  they  im- 
puted their  pardon  and  reconciliation ; "  that 
they  were  "  as  busy  about  sacrifice  in  the  outer 
court  of  the  Gentiles  as  in  the  holier  place  of  the 
Jews."  Unworthy  were  many  of  their  sacrifices 
— even  revolting.  The  Revelation,  which  tells 
us  of  God's  infinite  love  and  Gift  and  of  the  in- 
finite worth  of  the  Son  of  God,  did  not  shine  on 
them.     What  wonder  if,  groping  in  the  darkness 


Ii6  THE  ATONEMENT. 

for  some  sufficient  satisfaction  for  sin,  they  some- 
times laid  hands  on  and  dragged  to  the  altar 
some  wailing  virgin — some  "  fruit  of  their  body 
for  the  sin  of  their  soul  ?  "  Shall  we  involve  in 
one  contemptuous  charge  ("  pagan  ")  not  only  the 
special  and  ever-changing  forms  of  expiation,  but 
also  the  central  idea  of  expiation  and  satisfaction, 
which  seemed  to  voice  the  longing  for  the  Cross  ? 
In  an  age  which  recognizes  the  teachings  of  the 
Divine  Logos  in  the  ethnic  religions,  we  should 
recognize  His  Light  in  the  prevalent  and  per- 
manent practiceof  vicarious  sacrifice.  Doubtless 
those  sacrifices  were  pointing  though  dimly  to 
Calvary.  Not  only  on  Moriah's  temple-crowned 
height,  kindling  in  the  light  of  Revelation  and 
smoking  with  prophetic  sacrifice  did  the  cry  as- 
cend, Behold  the  Lamb  of  God!  On  many  a 
mountain-top,  where  darkness  covered  the  earth 
and  strange  altars  were  groaning  with  strange 
sacrifices  there  was  heard  the  half-stifled  cry: 
*'  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God !  "  Surely  many  such 
worshippers  shall  behold  Him — behold  Him  in 
the  land  of  perfect  light  and  swell  the  Heavenly 
chorus,  "  Blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and  power 
unto  the  Lamb  forever  and  ever." 

What  a  reflection  is  that  Heavenly  vision  of  the 
glad  adoration  which  now  on  earth  we  pay  the 
Lord  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of  God  slain  for  us! 
How   it  justifies    our   reliance    on    the    precious 


THE  ATONEMENT.  n? 

Blood  of  Christ!  "In  Heaven  it  is  around  His 
Form  as  once  pierced  and  bruised  that  the  wor- 
shippers bend  in  adoration."  "  I  beheld,"  says 
the  Seer,  "and  lo!  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  and 
the  four  living  creatures  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
elders  stood  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain.  And 
the  four  living  creatures  and  the  four-and-twenty 
elders  fell  down  before  the  Lamb,  and  sang  a 
new  song."  And  choristers  from  all  creation 
gather  to  sing  His  praise — "  rank  encircling  rank, 
and  orb  in  orb."  Angels'  voices  are  heard, 
"ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,"  and  in  the 
still  widening  choir  is  heard  the  voice  of  "  every 
creature  in  Heaven  and  in  earth  and  under  the 
earth."  New  each  song  of  adoration  to  the 
Lamb;  the  elders'  song,  the  angels*  song,  the  song 
of  every  creature.  But  this  a  theme  of  every 
song,  the  "  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain ; "  this  the 
opening  strain  that  summoned  from  Heaven  and 
earth  the  universal  choir,  "Thou  hast  purchased 
to  God  by  Thy  blood  men  of  every  kindred  and 
tribe  and  people  and  nation." 

Will  you  not  permit  me  in  conclusion  to  recur 
to  my  opening  words — that  the  Catholic  dogma 
of  the  Atonement  is  the  "  method  of  freeing  men's 
souls." 

Does  not  some  such  regulative  law  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  all  human  liberty  ?  Political  liberty 
has  its  regulative  law — has  for  a  foundation  its 
dogmas,  called  a  constitution.     The  intellect  has 


ii8  THE  ATONEMENT. 

its  dogmas,  the  fundamental  laws  of  thought; 
and  the  intellect  has  its  freedom  in  obedience  to 
them.  In  the  realm  of  the  mathematics  he  is  the 
true  freeman  who,  accepting  the  necessary  truths 
as  the  charter  of  his  intellectual  liberty,  goes 
forth  to  roam  at  will  gladly  and  triumphantly 
from  one  starry  province  to  another  of  this  bound- 
less universe.  And  if  by  spiritual  freedom  we 
mean  the  glad,  spontaneous  wide-ranging  trium- 
phant movement  of  the  intellect  and  heart  to- 
ward God,  such  a  freedom  as  this  is  possible 
only  for  him  who  accepts  the  definite  and  dog- 
matic truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  That  truth  is 
adapted  to  man's  nature.  It  responds  to  the  cry 
of  his  heart.  It  fulfils  his  unconscious  prophecies. 
It  gives  the  propitiation  he  needs.  It  restores 
the  lost  order  to  the  soul.  It  is  the  palladium 
of  a  liberty  more  precious  than  all  other  precious 
liberties — the  liberty  of  the  soul  to  look  gladly  out 
on  the  glory  of  the  Lord  and  to  be  changed  as 
it  looks  from  glory  to  glory.  It  is  the  gift  of  the 
great  Emancipator.  "  If  the  Son  shall  make  you 
free  ye  shall  be  free  indeed."  Then  will  you 
have  fallen  into  the  ranks — I  am  using  in  part 
the  words  of  another — you  will  have  fallen  into 
the  ranks  of  that  mighty  movement  of  redeemed 
humanity,  which,  as  it  traverses  the  ages,  follows 
the  uplifted  banner  of  the  Cross,  and  when  it 
would  sing  its  hymn  of  human  liberty  repeats 
instinctively  the  Creed  of  the  Apostles. 


Ube  ©ffice  ant»  Morh  of  tbe 


LECTURE  V. 

THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK  OF   THE 
HOLY  SPIRIT. 

THE   RIGHT   REV.    DAVIS  SESSUMS,  D.D., 
Assistant  Bishop  of  Louisianao 

The  subject  committed  to  me  is  the  Office  and 
Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  it  stands  midway 
in  the  course,  and  presents  the  transition  by  which 
we  pass  from  abstract  to  sacramental  theology, 
it  may  be  impossible  to  avoid  repetition  of  some- 
thing that  has  preceded  or  anticipation  of  some- 
thing that  may  follow.  Should  such  liberties  of 
treatment  exhibit  themselves,  I  trust  they  may 
be  pardonable,  as  involved  in  the  nature  of  the 
subject. 

Christianity  has  to  do  not  only  with  the  exist- 
ence and  with  the  revelation  of  God,  but  also 
with  the  possession  of  God  by  man.  God  is  in 
Himself.  He  exists  as  in  relation  to  man,  and 
He  also  exists  in  man.  He  makes;  He  preserves; 
He  perfects.  He  is  the  truth  which  man  seeks 
— the  only  true  way  in  which  the  search  can  be 


122  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

made;  and  He  is  also  the  life  of  the  seeker.  He 
is  the  end  before,  the  law  over,  and  the  power 
within  man. 

I.  The  presence  of  God  within  the  human  indi- 
vidual, the  participation  of  the  divine  which  is 
realized  for  the  mortal  spirit  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
is  primarily  assured  to  us  in  the  fact  that  man  is 
made  in  the  image  of  God. 

The  imaging  of  the  divine  in  the  human  is  more 
than  the  reflection  of  an  original  in  a  copy.  It  is 
the  vital  extension  into  man  of  the  being  of  God, 
so  that  the  creature  is  the  vehicle  of  the  Creator's 
self-expression,  and  so  represents  Him  that  the 
Creator  is  known  in  the  creature.  A  likeness  to 
God  cannot  be  an  external  resemblance,  instituted 
in  order  that  other  beings  may  behold  their  Maker 
superficially,  but  must  be  an  internal  unification, 
by  which  man  may  know  God  immediately  in  his 
own  spiritual  faculties,  and  may  become  a  means 
through  which  divine  truth  and  divine  life  may 
be  imparted. 

In  representing  Himself  in  man,  the  Creator 
does  not  build  a  rival  God,  nor  yet  a  lifeless 
effigy,  but  a  vital  revelation  of  Himself.  His 
thought  and  feeling  and  will  were  to  be  so  closely 
wrought  into  the  inner  history  of  His  finite  image 
that  the  latter's  processes  might,  in  the  divine 
design,  be  held  to  declare  His  own.  Human 
knowledge  of  God  consists  not  in  mere  mental 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  123 

reflections  of  an  object  organically  distinct  from 
man's  own  personality,  nor  in  notions  concerning 
a  truth  which  may  be  dissimilar  to  these  notions 
themselves,  nor  in  speculative  and  unreal  ideas 
which  might  attest  conversation,  but  not  com- 
munication between  man  and  God;  but  it  is  the 
realization,  the  translation  of  a  divine  presence, 
a  divine  fact  in  the  very  structure  of  man's  own 
being.  Truth,  as  we  think  it,  is  not  a  discovery 
of  an  external  object,  but  it  is  God  working  in 
human  faculties  and  permitting  them  to  have  at 
the  same  time  the  consciousness  of  a  seeming  in- 
dependence, a  seeming  externality  to  Him.  The 
evidence  which  man  educes  from  himself  concern- 
ing God  is  only  his  interpretation  of  the  divine 
handwriting  upon  the  spiritual  walls  of  his  own 
nature;  it  is  only  permitting  God  to  speak  for 
Himself  In  mortal  speech.  This  Immanence  of 
God  supplies  man  with  a  basis  of  religion  in  his 
own  personality,  enables  his  religion  to  be  truly 
a  personal  religion,  and  liberates  him  from  de- 
pendence upon  outward  evidences.  The  struc- 
tural thought  which  he  has  of  God  needs  not  to 
be  questioned,  as  though  It  required  to  be  justi- 
fied by  proof  outside  of  itself.  Its  presence  in 
the  mind  is  the  truth  which  it  represents  actually 
and  already  present  there,  w^orking  itself  Into 
realization,  constituting  itself  the  beginning  of 
that  completer  knowledge  which  may  come  by 


124  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

obedience,  commanding  acceptance  because  it  is. 
When  the  mind,  impelled  God-ward  by  the  deific 
impulse  already  within  it,  turns  against  the  fact, 
and  seeks  to  become  external  to  this  fact  and  to 
criticise  it,  the  mental  process  loses  in  its  doubt 
the  very  reality  which  it  attempts  to  examine, 
suspends  the  very  action  of  God  which  it  is  im- 
patient to  verify,  destroys  in  the  stagnation  of 
criticism  the  very  truth  which  is  operating  its 
own  presence  and  confirmation.  To  blirid  one's 
self  to  ascertain  whether  one  possesses  eyesight 
is  to  slay  the  very  faculty  by  which  the  assurance 
might  be  acquired.  God,  the  immanent  God,  is 
the  very  self-certifying  thought  which  moves  in 
man's  thought,  seeking  to  reproduce  there  a  di- 
vine consciousness.  He  is  the  very  thought  in 
which  man  thinks — the  mind  of  his  mind,  the  will 
of  his  will,  life  of  his  life,  light  of  his  light.  God 
submits  to  be  used,  or  to  be  abused. 

True  human  thinking  is  not  original,  independ- 
ent, absolute  thinking;  it  is  only  that  part  of  the 
divine  thinking  which  human  consciousness  has 
admitted  and  appropriated.  False  thinking  is 
free  thinking.  Man's  true  willing  is  only  his  con- 
scious participation  in  the  divine  will,  and  his 
glory  in  creation  and^  redemption  is  to  interpret 
and  communicate  God.  His  sin  is  to  misrepre- 
sent and  expel  Him.  To  close  the  being  to  God 
is  to  set  man  in  isolation,  to  leave  him  a  mind 


OF    THE   HOLY   SPIRIT.  125 

without  a  mind,  a  will  without  a  will,  a  shell  with- 
out a  seed,  eclipsing  the  very  light  by  whose  light 
he  may  see  light.  Thus  to  bar  out  God,  thus  to 
doubt  Him,  to  turn  from  His  manifested  presence 
within  the  spiritual  nature  to  the  senses  without, 
to  condition  obedience  upon  demonstration — this 
is  to  make  abortive  the  fullest  and  the  final  effort 
of  God;  it  is  to  sin  the  last  and  most  fatal  sin 
against  the  Holy  Spirit. 

God  can  do  no  more.  He  has  entered  into  us 
and  can  come  no  nearer.  He  can  give  no  more 
conclusive  evidence  than  the  gift  to  us  of  spirit- 
ual faculties  already  freighted  with  His  presence. 
His  resources  are  exhausted.  He  has  enveloped 
us  without  and  within. 

Then  to  fail  Him  is,  indeed,  to  fall  upon  bitter- 
ness and  ruin.  There  is  no  mystical,  unknown 
offence  needed  to  send  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  His 
everlasting  flight.  To  make  darkness  where  there 
is  light  is  to  abide  in  the  night ;  and  that  self- 
blinding  of  the  spirit  which  disowns  God  in  dis- 
inheriting itself,  which  refuses  worship  when  its 
own  inmost  being  is  a  temple,  overpowers  Om- 
nipotence, and  sinks  Him  into  depths  of  divine 
despair. 

**  For  I  say  this  is  death,  and  the  sole  death, 
When  a  man's  loss  comes  to  him  from  his  gain. 
Darkness  from  light,  from  knowledge  ignorance. 
And  lack  of  love  from  love  made  manifest  • 


126  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

A  lamp's  death  when,  replete  with  oil,  it  chokes  ; 
A  stomach's  when,  surcharged  with  food,  it  starves. 

*'  When  man  questioned,  'What  if  there  be  love 
Behind  the  will  and  might,  as  real  as  they  ? ' — 
He  needed  satisfaction  God  could  give. 
And  did  give,  as  ye  have  the  written  Word  ; 
But  when,  beholding  that  love  everywhere, 
He  reasons,  *  Since  such  love  is  everywhere. 
And  since  ourselves  can  love  I  would  be  loved, 
We  ourselves  make  the  love,  and  Christ  was  not,' — 
How  shall  ye  help  this  man  who  knows  himself 
That  he  must  love  and  be  loved  again. 
Yet,  owning  his  own  love  that  proveth  Christ, 
Rejecteth  Christ  through  very  need  of  Him  ? 
The  lamp  o'erswims  with  oil,  the  stomac*h  flags 
Loaded  with  nurture,  and  that  man's  soul  dies," 

II.  An  ultimate  danger  involved  in  this  con- 
ception of  the  internality  of  God  is  that  of  limit- 
ing the  divine  fact  and  act  to  the  process  realized 
in  man.  The  final  and  subtlest  form  of  Panthe- 
ism, arising  from  error  along  these  lines,  declares 
not  only  that  God  exists  in  human  nature,  but 
that  He  does  not  exist  until  and  except  in  crea- 
tion. It  declares  that  He  becomes  personal  only 
as  man  so  becomes;  that  there  is  no  self-existent 
object  beyond  the  divine  thought  in  the  creature; 
that  God  is  merely  a  name  for  the  whole  mind 
and  feeling  and  will  which  are  developed  in  man- 
kind. But  this  misdirection  of  thought  concern- 
ing the  divine  immanence  should  not  obscure  the 


OF    THE  HOLY   SPIRIT,  127 

fact  that  in  this  truth  abide  the  utmost  power  and 
preciousness  of  Christianity. 

The  human  consciousness  is  ever  expressing  or 
realizing  itself  in  a  threefoldness.  Its  structure 
is  a  trinity,  a  unity  of  self  and  not-self.  But  the 
consciousness  of  man  cannot  be  the  only  con- 
sciousness, because  it  is  ever  increasing,  extend- 
ing, developing  itself  out  of  an  infinite  resource, 
supplying  itself  out  of  a  previous  intelligence,  in- 
terpreting meaning  universally,  incessantly  hold- 
ing commerce  with  another  Thought  whose  activ- 
ity maintains  in  place  and  name  objects  which 
man  may  know  and  correlate. 

Because  human  consciousness  is  progressive, 
and  because  it  does  not  create  but  only  obeys  its 
own  laws  of  logic,  it  must  be  taken  to  indicate 
the  existence  of  a  prior  and  authoritative  logical 
method,  which  impresses  itself  upon  man,  and 
amid  his  waywardness  testifies  to  an  original  and 
independent  train  of  thought  pervading  the  uni- 
verse. The  inner  relation  of  the  human  to  the 
divine  is  that  of  a  recipient,  upon  whom  the  giver 
is  endeavoring  to  pour  out  inexhaustible  stores. 
The  historical  development  of  man,  the  inward 
pressure  which  impels  the  individual  to  growth, 
the  whole  subjective  effort  and  aspiration  of  the 
spiritual  life — these  manifest  the  presence  of  God 
striving  with  and  within  humanity  to  find  such 
free  way,  such  outlet,  that  the  creature  may  be 


128  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

expanded  into  His  own  existence.  If  it  be  said 
that  the  independence  of  God,  His  presence  in 
finite  image  and  the  likeness  between  original  di- 
vine being  and  derived  human  being  cannot  be 
demonstrated,  it  is  to  be  answered  that  to  doubt 
them  is  treason  to  consciousness  itself.  As  ideas, 
as  structural  laws,  as  spiritual  facts,  they  exist  in 
man;  and  to  attempt  to  penetrate  behind  them 
is  to  turn  consciousness  outside  of  itself,  and  to 
discredit  the  whole  mental  movement  which 
accumulates  science  upon  the  basis  of  axioms. 
These  spiritual  facts  exist;  and  to  ignore  them 
would  be  as  arbitrary  and  destructive  as  to  ignore 
their  antitheses.  The  conclusions  to  which  they 
lead  are  irrefragable,  because  they  are  essential 
to  explain  the  phenomena  of  the  inner  life;  and 
any  system  which  denies  them,  in  the  effort  to 
build  the  universe  on  the  one  strand  of  physical 
fact,  is  simply  blinding  itself  to  one  entire  half  of 
that  universe,  and  its  theory  is  as  Illogical  as  dis- 
astrous. These  spiritual  facts  find  their  confir- 
mation, as  all  truth  finds  its  proof,  In  experience; 
and  they  justify  themselves  in  the  fulfilment,  the 
harmony,  the  reason  which  they  impart  to  human 
life.  To  discover  man's  destiny  in  his  likeness  to 
God  and  his  glory  and  Inspiration  in  union  with 
the  divine  nature  is  both  revelation  and  science. 
To  deduce  infidelity  from  this  glory  is  suicide. 
HI.  Where   it  is  even   admitted   that   God    is 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  129 

truly  God,  and  not  the  accretion  of  humanity, 
there  may  still  be  found  a  superficial  acceptance 
of  His  existence  as  a  bare,  mechanical,  arithmet- 
ical unit,  instead  of  an  organic  unity,  in  which  He 
may  really  bind  creation  to  Himself.  Such  views, 
turning  to  an  opposite  extreme,  consider  God  as 
purely  external  to  man — as  one  dwelling  in  eter- 
nal solitude,  without  holding  to  that  mystery  .of 
His  nature  by  which  he  is  connected  with  His 
creature.  They  contemplate  God  and  man  and 
nature  in  sheer  independence  and  separateness — 
as  though  they  constituted  a  succession  of  three 
contradictory  entities;  as  though  there  obtained 
between  them  no  relations  save  those  of  con- 
tiguity, of  superficial  contact,  of  tangential  sym- 
pathy. They  regard  the  divine  activity  as  exerted 
only  upon,  and  not  in  creation.  Man's  thought 
is  here  made  a  mere  movement  revolving  about 
God,  instead  of  a  passage  into  Him ;  truth,  mere 
mental  imagery,  instead  of  vital  participation ; 
revelation,  a  reflection  upon  the  surface  of  hu- 
manity, instead  of  an  incarnation  in  them ;  Trin- 
ity, three  dissimilar  units — God,  nature,  man — 
instead  of  the  social  constitution  of  the  Godhead 
declaring  itself  in  finite  history.  Such  interpre- 
tations make  man  an  outcast  from  God;  reduce 
his  spiritual  experience  to  a  fiction  as  under  di- 
vine names  without  divine  reality;  and  render 
impossible  any  true  relationship  between  them. 


13°  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

Instead  of  magnifying  man,  as  these  views  may 
strive  to  do,  in  some  imaginary  article  of  free- 
dom, they  empty  him  of  God,  and  deny  the  unity 
which  human  thought  demands  in  the  cosmos. 
In  some  veritable  sense,  in  some  veritable  way, 
all  is  one. 

Either  God  is  all  in  all,  or  there  is  no  God.  Or- 
ganic unity  is  the  only  principle  on  which  man 
can  live  and  think  in  the  universe.  Either  as 
from  no  God,  all  is  the  unity  of  materialism,  or, 
as  from  God,  all  IS  the  unity  of  the  Spirit.  The 
independence  and  the  immanence  of  God,  God 
without  and  God  within,  as  known  both  in  Script- 
ure and  philosophy,  are  harmonized  by  an  exist- 
ence which  enables  Him  to  be  both  in  Himself 
and  in  His  creature.  His  nature  must  be  such 
as  to  admit  of  this  existence  without  self-destruc- 
tion. His  presence  in  the  creature  is  not  forced 
upon  Him  by  the  creature,  but  is  the  finite  rep- 
resentation of  an  eternal  fact  within  Himself. 
This  immanence  obtains  because  it  corresponds 
to  and  is  based  upon  the  presence,  within  Him- 
self, of  both  an  original  and  a  derived  being. 
Through  the  relationship  which  God  maintains 
with  man  is  shadowed  forth  the  fact  of  God  relat- 
ing Himself  to  Himself. 

Behind  the  temporal  son  is  the  Eternal  Son. 

God  is  known  as  complete  within  Himself; 
keeping  relations  with   Himself;    having  divine 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  13 1 

Fact,  divine  Form,  divine  Force;  eternal  subject 
knowing  Himself  in  eternal  object,  in  unity;  Ori- 
gin, Expression,  Relationship;  Father,  Son,  Holy 
Spirit.  The  Father  knows  Himself  in  the  Son, 
and  is  known  by  the  Son ;  and  God  gives  and  re- 
ceives, realizes  and  fulfils  Himself  in  the  Common 
Love,  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  moves  from  each 
to  each,  takes  and  returns,  unites  in  distinguish- 
ing, and  abides  as  the  central  Personality  and 
medium  of  interchange  between  Father  and  Son. 
The  possibility  of  finite  creation  lies  in  the  fact 
of  the  Eternal  Image  in  God.  In  Him  as  the 
Logos  rests  the  divine  participation  of  the  uni- 
verse— its  extension  along  the  lines  of  sonship, 
its  secure  membership  in  God.  Here  lies  the 
truth  of  which  Pantheism  and  Deism  are  equally 
misrepresentations.  Creation  is,  indeed,  divine, 
but  not  God.  God  is,  indeed,  Himself,  but  not 
selfish.  Priority  pertains  to  the  Divine  Subject, 
the  Original  Fatherhood  who  objectifies  Himself 
in  His  Son,  and  so  from  Him  primarily  proceeds 
the  Spirit.  Yet  the  Eternal  Love,  the  Unifier, 
moves  reciprocally.  In  time,  in  history,  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  the  Eternal  Love  of  the  Father  bestow- 
ing itself  upon  man  through  the  Divine  Son,  and 
the  Eternal  Love  of  the  Son  revealing  for  man's 
joy  the  glory  which  He  and  His  members  have 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and  the  Love  of  the 
Son  gathering  to  itself  the  filial  devotion  of  hu- 


132  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

manity,  and  returning  in  eternal  loyalty  to  glorify 
the  Father.  Herein  are  indicated  the  subtle  ac- 
curacy of  the  Eastern  and  the  practical  accuracy 
of  the  Western  mind  in  divergent  interpretations 
of  the  Procession. 

IV.  This  Divine  Unity,  existing  in  self-relation, 
extending  into  the  finite  in  both  creation  and 
redemption  as  essential  to  the  expression  of  His 
own  nature,  is  Perfect  Personality.  The  mys- 
tery of  the  Godhead  is  not  that  of  many  fused 
into  one,  but  of  one  in  many,  of  Tri-personality, 
of  Personality  in  diversity,  of  Unity  in  organic 
distinction.  To  realize  a  true  unity  in  man's 
being;  to  admit  humanity  into  the  fulness  of  the 
divine  fellowship,  and  open  upon  them  the  deeps 
of  the  divine  nature;  to  fix  a  dwelling  for  the 
Godhead  bodily  in  flesh;  to  admit  the  human 
creature  through  holy  and  holiest  unto  the  very 
peace  of  God's  inward  self-communion — this  is  the 
gradual  work  of  the  Triune  God.  Lest  man  be 
overpowered,  or  play  false  and  dishonor  the 
sacred  charge,  he  must  first  be  bound  to  God  by 
the  Father,  made  to  knov/  the  supremacy  of  God 
and  the  need  of  his  own  obedience.  He  may  then 
be  uplifted  to  filial  freedom  in  the  Son.  And, 
finally,  when  secure  yet  free,  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
possess  him  fully,  and  touch  him  into  sacred 
identity  with  the  inner  life  of  God;  may  establish 
him  in  fearless  and  unfaltering  intimacy  with  the 


OF    THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  133 

Father  as  His  true  minister  and  the  sharer  of 
His  joy  and  sovereignty.  The  successive  work, 
the  dispensations  of  God,  do  not  signify  that 
man's  sin  alone  necessitated  the  elaboration  of 
the  Trinity — as  though  by  human  shame  God 
were  forced  to  sally  forth  from  recesses  wherein 
otherwise  He  would  have  held  His  eternal  re- 
treat, or  man  had  come  through  the  very  igno- 
miny of  a  fall  to  grasp  a  vaster  blessing  than  his 
Maker  originally  designed.  But  they  signify  that 
the  everlasting  purpose  of  God  to  realize  His 
image  in  humanity  was  not  defeated  by  the  apos- 
tasy of  His  creature;  that  God  prevailed,  though 
crucified  by  man.  Thus  complete  in  Himself,  He 
works  in  time  inseparably  yet  successively.  And 
through  the  ages  the  Holy  Spirit  prepares  for  the 
mighty  culmination  of  Pentecost ;  revealing  more 
and  more  the  life  and  law  of  the  Father  through 
the  Son  and  inspiring  the  creature  to  rise  to  his 
birthright  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

V.  In  the  physical  order  the  Holy  Spirit  in- 
augurates the  movement  of  life,  causes  living  ob- 
jects to  develop  in  independence  of  the  world  of 
sameness  around  them,  and  enables  organic  being 
to  arise.  In  the  mystery  of  organism,  where  me- 
chanical balance  yields  to  the  oneness  which  ex- 
ists in  complexity,  where  unity  is  found  in  variety, 
He  suggests  the  mode  of  the  Divine  Being.  Seek- 
ing final  unification   of   God  with  the  creature, 


134  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

working  onward  to  humanity  fulfilled  in  God,  He 
evolves  along  the  plan  of  the  Eternal  Form,  in 
the  logic  of  the  Eternal  Son,  an  ever-ascending 
series  of  life  which  prophesies  the  advent  of  man 
and  of  Christ.  He  interrupts  here  and  there  the 
sequence  of  the  natural  order,  and  indicates  that 
its  issue  in  the  spiritual  is  not  an  accidental  end 
attained  by  unconscious  natural  selection,  but  a 
predetermined  conclusion  of  a  divine  design  elab- 
orated by  the  activity  of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of 
Life.  He  distributes  throughout  creation  rudi- 
mentary forms  of  facts  which  perfectly  exist  in 
the  second  man — the  Lord  from  Heaven — in 
order  that  the  fitness  of  this  latter  to  gather  up 
and  complete  creation  may  be  manifested;  in 
order  that  He  may  be  accepted  by  the  creature 
as  the  satisfaction  of  his  desire,  the  solution  of  his 
destiny.  He  combines,  substance  and  form  so 
that  the  visible  world  may  communicate  to  man 
the  beauty  and  order  of  the  inner  life  of  God. 
He  broods  over  the  natural  man,  and  strives  to 
elicit  his  consciousness  of  sonship  in  God.  He  is 
the  spiritual  presence,  the  spiritual  power  in  the 
phenomenal,  and  gives  to  physical  things  a  sac- 
ramental significance,  establishing  all  formal  ex- 
istence of  flesh  and  body  and  ceremony  in  the 
sanctity  of  a  divine  mission,  exalting  matter  as 
the  symbol  and  medium  of  incarnation,  and  pre- 
serving it    from    degradation    by  manichee    and 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  I35 

materialist.  At  last,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  He 
evolves  the  humanity  of  Christ,  vivifying  human 
flesh  into  form  which  should  befit  the  Eternal 
Form  of  God ;  breaking  the  physical  succession 
in  order  to  effect  a  new  spiritual  beginning,  and 
setting  the  mystery  of  a  Virgin  Birth  over  against 
the  mystery  of  the  origin  of  the  first  and  natural 
man.  The  final  man  is  given  an  embodiment 
which  accords  with  his  nature,  and  through  a 
spiritual  generation  introduces  the  era  of  the 
Spirit — the  reign  of  unity  and  love  and  the  heav- 
enly virtues. 

VI.  Within  the  human  consciousness  Reworks 
to  produce  some  spiritual  self,  or  gift,  or  charac- 
ter, or  genius,  by  which  the  individual  may  be- 
come personal  and  independent;  may  realize  an 
originality  to  be  shared  only  with  God,  may  rep- 
resent some  new  divine  truth  to  men.  The  aim 
is  toward  a  personality  whose  knowledge  and  love 
and  will  shall  resemble  God's,  above  time  and 
space  and  secondary  cause.  He  pervades  the 
Ego,  the  inward  and  most  personal  characteristic. 
Preserving  responsibility,  He  yet  seeks  to  develop 
in  the  human  being  and  his  history,  through  what- 
ever faculty  or  activity  of  consciousness  He  can 
control,  whatever  divine  fact  that  faculty  or 
activity  can  represent.  He  inspires  the  move- 
ment in  universal  human  mind  toward  cause  and 
law  and  beauty,  and  through  this  natural  inspira- 


136  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

tion  He  prepares  for  a  higher  and  more  spiritual, 
as  human  personality  becomes  more  obedient  to 
the  Spirit  that  leadeth  unto  all  truth.  Degrees 
of  this  natural  operation  are  seen  in  poets,  phi- 
losophers, heroes,  and  great  discoverers.  But  that 
which  is  technically  and  specially  inspiration  is 
that  in  the  consciousness  of  man  by  which  he  has 
come  to  know  his  filial  relation  to  God,  has  real- 
ized the  mystery  of  the  Triune  Godhead,  and 
has  interpreted  and  applied  the  Incarnation. 
The  Hebrew  Prophets  exhibit  the  fullest  measure 
of  this  inspiration  in  the  ages  preceding  Christ; 
the  completest  realization  under  the  Spirit  of  the 
nature  and  purpose  of  God,  of  the  divine  destiny 
of  man,  of  the  progress  of  God's  intention  to  ex- 
tend, to  incarnate  Himself  in  human  life  and  his- 
tory. In  them  the  Spirit  moves  onward  in  clearer 
and  nearer  approach  to  His  perfect  work.  Fi- 
nally, in  Christ  He  fully  enters  into  the  ark  of 
man's  being;  completes  humanity  in  the  image 
of  God;  inspires  human  nature,  from  its  union 
with  the  Eternal  Word,  to  enter  into  the  reason 
of  God;  realizes  for  man  in  the  consciousness  of 
Christ  the  threefold  mystery  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit ;  takes  up  the  creature  into  the  divine 
nature,  and  opens  henceforth  the  possibility  of  a 
perfect  peace,  a  real  freedom,  through  filial  obe- 
dience to  the  Father  in  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit. 
By  this  final  work  must  be  tested  all  that  pre- 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  137 

cedes  and  all  that  follows  it.  As  thought  and 
life,  as  the  personalities  of  men  harmonize  with 
Christ,  are  they  to  be  accredited  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  measures  and  values  of  their  inspi- 
ration to  be  determined.  The  persistence  of  the 
Prophets  in  their  effort  toward  Him  is  evidence 
of  the  Spirit  wrestling  with  them ;  and  the  re- 
sults were  conditioned  by  their  individuality  and 
responsibility.  Both  the  divine  economy  and 
personal  limitation  affected  the  issues  of  their  in- 
spiration, and  left  them  still  humanly  capable  of 
development  even  in  the  exercise  of  their  office. 
The  delay  of  the  consummation  in  Christ  pro- 
ceeds not  only  from  the  choice  of  God  awaiting 
His  own  period,  awaiting  the  fulness  of  time,  but 
also  from  the  fact  that  only  then  did  responsible 
and  obedient  manhood  enable  the  Spirit  to  enter 
upon.  His  full  and  unhindered  dominion.  Not 
only  did  God  then  dominate  humanity  by  the 
power  of  His  Spirit,  but  man  by  loyalty  became 
capable  of  this  divine  expansion.  The  test  of 
inspiration  is  not  a  law  deduced  from  the  Old 
Testament,  but  from  Christ  and  the  New,  and 
thence  applied  to  the  Old.  So  far  as  the  Old 
Testament  is  Christian,  it  represents  the  full 
technical  work  of  the  Spirit.  Henceforth  inspi- 
ration is  still  personal;  but,  as  before  it  was  not 
final  in  any  unit,  but  in  Christ,  so  now  it  is  to  be 
measured  and  accepted  as  realized  in  the  Christ- 


138  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

Body,  the  Church.  When  the  work  of  the  Spirit 
is  not  primarily  to  develop  the  consciousness  in 
time  relations,  but  eternally  and  toward  God,  it 
is  illogical  to  expect  that  man,  even  as  His  vehi- 
cle, will  be  lifted  above  the  necessities  of  growth 
or  be  severed  from  the  influence  of  age  and  en- 
vironment. God  in  giving  Himself  does  not  in- 
stantly unmake  the  human  past,  but  constructs  a 
new  present  and  future.  He  does  not  by  inspira- 
tion or  incarnation  change  the  laws  which  make 
man's  progress  personal  as  well  as  providential; 
He  does  not,  by  the  gift  of  one  truth,  disentangle 
ail  error  and  fill  up  all  gaps  of  ignorance.  Though 
Christ  and  the  Spirit  have  come,  the  old  world 
is  not  immediately  changed,  nor  is  the  new  lev- 
elled to  its  grade;  but  the  old  is  explored  and  in- 
terpreted and  corrected  in  the  light  of  the  new, 
and  is  truly  fulfilled  in  the  law  which  makes  the 
old  to  decrease  as  the  new  increases.  The  uni- 
versal divine  method  is  not  to  destroy  the  natu- 
ral and  the  old,  not  to  violate  a  rational  transition 
to  the  spiritual  and  the  new,  by  teaching  these 
latter  only  in  their  own  language  and  under  their 
own  forms,  and  utterly  disembarrassed  of  the  as- 
sociations of  their  predecessors;  but  to  give  the 
spiritual  and  the  new  in  terms  of  the  natural  and 
the  old,  troubling  man  with  the  likeness  and  the 
unlikeness,  compelling  him  to  sift  and  disentangle, 
and  so  providing  him  with  results  more  real  and 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  I39 

valuable.  The  men  of  the  Old  Testament  strove 
to  search  out  the  meaning  of  the  Spirit ;  and 
amid  much  that  is  their  own,  of  themselves  and 
like  themselves,  there  is  much  that  is  plainly 
above  themselves,  without  parallel  and  without 
solution  save  in  the  Christ,  and  delivered  by  them 
as  the  servants  of  a  Divine  Ruler  to  whose  mas- 
tery they  bent  in  awe,  but  about  whose  final  pur- 
poses they  still  perceived  a  veil.  To  this  we 
cling:  Their  Messianic  hope,  their  foreshadowing 
of  the  Word  made  flesh,  their  rising  vision  of 
humanity  redeemed,  unified,  transfigured  by  mem- 
bership in  the  one  kingdom  of  the  All-Father. 
It  may  not  be  possible  to  define  the  limits  of  the 
human  and  the  divine  in  their  work,  as  it  is  not 
possible  in  the  old  geologic  world  to  identify  all 
places  and  degrees  where  fire  and  force  have 
wrought.  Directing  and  developing  a  system 
which  was  to  affect  all  ages  and  all  mankind,  the 
Spirit  breathed  through  them,  controlling  and  ad- 
justing the  effort  of  their  personality  to  more  in- 
finite ends  than  they  may  have  been  enabled  to 
apprehend.  Moving  them.  He  dominated  their 
movement  to  be  effectual  in  a  larger  plan  than 
their  individuality  could  have  grasped  or  exe- 
cuted ;  behind  the  fragmentary  realizations  which 
He  vouchsafed  to  human  spirits  there  loom  the 
sacred  and  mysterious  proportions  of  a  stupen- 
dous and  unearthly  design,  the  vast  radiance  of 


14°  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

ail  over-ruling  God,  which  no  discoverable  hu- 
man element  in  the  record  of  His  instruments 
can  weaken  or  obscure.  The  true  Christian  re- 
ligion is  not  guilty  of  seeking  to  limit  the  range 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  His  education  of  the  world 
for  and  in  Christ,  to  its  own  historical  lines; 
nor  does  it  travesty  the  method  and  fact  of  in- 
spiration by  approximating  it  to  the  pagan  idea 
of  a  supposed  supernaturally  intoxicated  frenzy 
producing  mechanically  perfect,  yet  dubious 
oracles;  nor  does  it,  because  human  beings  are 
thought  to  exhibit,  or  do  exhibit,  fallibility  on 
some  subjects,  practise  an  indiscriminate  and 
illogical  denial  of  their  divine  calling  and  author- 
ity on  all  other  subjects.  But  it  is  certified  of 
God's  victorious  work,  when  it  finds  the  super- 
human amid  the  demonstrably  human  ;  it  main- 
tains the  moral  value  of  revelation  and  religion 
by  preserving  the  responsibility  of  the  instru- 
ment; and  it  obtains  confirmation  both  by  its 
likeness  and  its  unlikeness  to  ethnic  inspiration. 
The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  inspirer,  is 
progressive;  it  increases;  it  does  not  diminish. 
The  new  is  nearer  to  Christ  than  the  old,  as  clear 
truth  is  greater  than  prediction,  as  gift  is  more 
than  promise,  'the  revelation  of  God  to  the 
Apostles  was  not  limited  to  the  ancient  books, 
but  was  fulfilled  in  His  gift  to  their  living  selves. 
And  the  revelation  to  the  Church  was  not  limited 


OF    THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  141 

to  what  its  founders  recorded,  but  was  to  be  ful- 
filled in  the  living  body  of  the  Church,  as  it 
should  be  led  by  the  Spirit.  The  Word  of  God 
was  in  human  flesh,  and  the  oracles  of  God  are 
in  the  Church — in  the  spirits  of  men  united  in 
Christ  under  the  tuition  of  the  Spirit.  The  living 
Church,  in  its  unity,  is  not  only  keeper  but  In- 
terpreter of  Holy  Scripture.  It  is  the  sacra- 
mental fact  of  the  Incarnation,  and  is  therefore 
the  pillar  and  ground  of  this  latter's  truth.  The 
body  of  Christ  bearing  in  its  own  hand  its  Bible, 
its  ancestral  record,  its  family  chart,  neither  ex- 
pects men  to  solve  the  biographical  meaning  with- 
out its  teaching,  nor  fears  any  flaw  which  inge- 
nuity may  detect  in  the  documents;  for  itself 
abides  as  both  the  key  and  the  final  defence  of 
Christianity.  Even  when  criticism  claims  to  have 
reduced  the  Bible  to  the  level  of  the  ethnic  re- 
ligions, and  by  equalization  with  them  to  have 
disproved  its  inspiration,  it  has.  only  succeeded  in 
saying  that  certain  common  phenomena  underlie 
the  universal  religious  life  of  man.  The  conclu- 
sion is  not  to  negative  divine  inspiration,  but  to 
assert  that  God  in  some  way  has  had  witness  in 
all  nations,  and  to  multiply  proofs  of  the  neces- 
sity and  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation.  The  very 
effort  toward  God  is  from  God.  That  it  was  no 
part  of  Christ's  endeavor  to  reorganize  man  out 
of  error  into  truth  instantly,  nor  to  deal  with  him 


142  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

from  the  standpoint  of  an  infallible  mind  im- 
patient of  man's  biassed  logic,  is  shown  by  the 
gradual  expression  of  His  own  consciousness  of 
Incarnation,  by  its  culmination  in  His  post-resur- 
rection body,  by  His  prophecy  of  the  more  abso- 
lute truth  and  the  more  final  divine  method  which 
were  to  be  introduced  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

VH.  Since  in  Christ  was  accomplished  the  per- 
fect work  of  God  upon  man;  since  in  Him  the 
divine  end  and  way  and  power  had  all  been  safely 
lodged  in  human  nature,  and  the  meaning  and  use 
of  the  in-dwelling  God  had  been  guarded  by  the 
revelation  of  the  object  and  the  method  which  man 
should  pursue ;  since  in  Christ  humanity  had  been 
permitted  to  discern  the  effect  of  the  Spirit,  had 
been  supplied  with  a  means  by  which  they  could 
be  certified  of  the  actuality  and  the  law  of  the 
work  of  the  Spirit — it  then  became  possible  for 
the  Spirit  to  be  spread  abroad  in  mankind,  for 
God  fully  to  possess  His  creature.  The  breath 
of  the  Almighty  then  filled  humanity;  the  full 
divine  glory  settled  upon  manhood;  the  over- 
whelming weight  and  process  swept  in,  and  the 
full  Power  and  Love  of  God  are  intrusted  to  His 
mortal  image.  God  had  waited  long  enough,  and 
at  last  the  Heavenly  Dove  returned  to  His  rest. 
If  man  is  faithless  to  this  Holy  Guest  and  fails  to 
answer  in  love  this  gift  of  love,  then  the  igno- 
miny of  his  ingratitude  touches  its  climax,  and 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  143 

henceforth  he  can  know  no  consolation.  The 
goal  toward  which  He  seeks  to  develop  man,  the 
pattern  into  which  He  would  mould  him,  the 
treasure  He  would  bestow — these  all  are  stored 
in  the  Christ.  In  Him  is  the  exhaustion  of  di- 
vine beneficence;  and  in  Him  the  fruition  of 
man's  devotion  and  might.  In  Him  are  fulfilled 
divine  purpose  and  human  effort.  The  Spirit 
must  take  of  His  and  manifest  Him  unto  men ; 
distribute  unto  them  the  truth  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, and  enable  them  to  realize  Christ.  He 
must  awaken  in  man  the  sense  of  sonship,  elab- 
orate in  him  a  revelation,  convince  him  that  he  is 
doomed  to  union  with  God.  To  achieve  this,  to 
build  this  spiritual  glory  actually  into  our  man- 
hood as  it  is  in  Christ;  to  exalt  the  mortal  to 
participate  in  the  unity  which  Christ  has  with 
God;  to  enable  him  to  say,  "Abba,"  "Father," 
and  to  live  in  the  splendor  of  the  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God;  to  have  mankind  transfigured  in  a 
divine  commission  which  ennobles  them  and  up- 
lifts them  into  companionship  with  the  Everlast- 
ing Father,  until  even  their  humanity  seems  to 
assume  a  new  and  mysterious  nature  in  its  union 
with  the  Eternal  Son  of  God — to  achieve  this  is 
the  final  salvation,  the  infinite  blessedness  which 
make  the  mission  and  the  greatness  of  Christian- 
ity. Because  the  Holy  Spirit  has  established  in 
Christ  the  sign  and  measure  of  His  operation, 


144  THE    OFFICE  AND    WORK 

He  then  proceeds  to  enter  into  all  humanity,  to 
pervade  individuals,  to  realize  in  the  units  of  the 
race  what  is  contained  in  the  Generic  Head. 
Connecting  mankind  with  Christ;  representing, 
repeating  in  the  Church,  as  organically  one  with 
Christ,  an  existence  like  that  in  which  Christ 
dwells;  He  constitutes  the  Church  the  ideal,  the 
universal  man,  the  race  made  one  in  Christ, 
wherein  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  completely. 

Through  this  body  He  gradually  moves  into 
men.  Employing  it  as  a  centre  organized  into 
unity  by  Himself,  He  protects  Himself  against 
vagaries  of  individualism,  and  yet  multiplies  the 
points  of  contact  from  which  He  shall  touch  man- 
kind. The  Church  thus  becomes  the  Apostle, 
the  "  One  sent  of  God  "  to  extend  the  Incarna- 
tion, to  effect  salvation  by  incorporating  hu- 
manity into  filial  relationship  with  God.  Its 
very  nature,  essence,  and  function  are  to  repre- 
sent, to  declare,  to  realize  the  atonement  and  the 
At-Onement,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  in  the  actu- 
ality of  organic  membership  in  Christ,  and  the 
realization  of  a  positive  spiritual  holiness;  to 
take  men  into  that  connection  with  God  in  which 
they  find  mercy  as  sons,  and  in  which  their 
righteousness  may  become  a  participation  of 
God;  to  constitute  a  state  of  being  which  shall 
witness  the  manifested  love  of  God  in  the  real- 
ized unity  with  Himself  of  His  faithful  sons;  to 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  145 

present  before  men  and  to  be  to  men  a  fact  in 
which  they  are  out  of  wrath  and  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  divine  life.  Again,  the  Church  is 
Apostolic  because  its  whole  being  began  as  a  full 
creation,  as  a  complete  organism,  with  the  Apos- 
tles instituted  as  the  essential  official  factor  of 
its  constitution ;  because  the  Apostolic  order  was 
not  an  evolution  from  the  Church,  but  even  while 
representing  the  character  of  the  Body  it  still 
existed  by  independent  appointment  from  Christ; 
because  the  Apostolic  order,  gathering  the  Church 
around  itself,  perpetuates  the  historical  witness 
to  the  Resurrection  of  Christ;  because  through 
the  Apostles  and  their  successors,  through  the 
continuity  of  an  historical  office,  divine  fact  is 
defended  against  the  lawlessness  of  subjective 
speculation,  and  an  objective  witness  is  established 
by  God  Himself  to  the  priestly  mission  of  human 
nature,  to  the  purpose  which  forever  seeks  to 
communicate  God  to  man  through  man.  It  pos- 
sesses  the  means  of  assurance  that  it  is  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Spirit,  the  educational  media  oper- 
ated by  the  Spirit  to  build  it  into  Christ,  and  the 
historical  witness  that  the  Spirit  is  at  work  within 
it;  and  it  has  the  means  of  imparting  its  divine 
gift  to  the  nations,  of  communicating  to  humanity 
membership  in  its  divine  heritage. 

The  unity  of  men  with  God  under  the  Spirit 
operates  unity  of  man  with  man,  and  is  to  be 


146  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

represented  in  time  by  a  progress  toward  social 
unification,  by  a  progress  toward  that  universal 
brotherhood  which  may  realize  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  such  pure  truth  as  may  underlie  the 
Utopias  of  philosophers  and  the  dreams  of  So- 
cialism ;  by  a  progress  toward  that  pure  society 
where  man  shall  be  in  love  with  man,  and  where 
competition  shall  be  only  a  rivalry  of  beneficence 
between  human  souls  consciously  intrusted  for 
each  other  with  good  gifts  from  God.  Because 
the  Spirit  of  truth  is  in  the  Church,  in  the  unity 
of  the  Church  there  abides  an  inspiration  to  dis- 
cover and  to  teach  the  truth;  to  develop  in  the 
catholic  mind  of  the  Body  of  Christ  the  Mind  of 
God;  to  realize  an  accumulation  of  truth  which 
accords  with,  but  is  not  limited  to,  the  past;  to 
enable  the  United  Church  to  comprehend  the 
Bible  in  the  light  of  the  Spirit,  and  to  make  its 
utterance  the  final  and  divinely  representative 
voice  upon  the  truths  of  religion.  The  same 
Spirit  who  empowers  the  Church  of  God  to  pre- 
pare and  preserve  its  recorded  biography  in  the 
Bible  is  still  in  the  living  Church,  and  seeks  for- 
ever to  realize  in  humanity  the  full  consciousness 
of  God,  until  this  humanity  in  Christ  shall  know 
God  as  God  is  known  by  the  Living  Son,  who  is 
the  Living  and  Eternal  Word.  In  the  Church 
the  Holy  Spirit  works  to  effect  amid  men  a  visi- 
ble Communion  of  Saints,  instead  of  a  theoreti- 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  I47 

cal  sentimental  sympathy;  an  organic  body  ex- 
pressing itself  in  symbols,  interpreting  itself  as 
the  end  of  human  existence,  as  the  heavenly  so- 
ciety of  beings  who  are  one  in  God,  yet  preserved 
in  personality,  instead  of  a  temporal  vehicle  for 
transmitting  select  souls  to  a  selfish  paradise  be- 
yond itself;  a  unity  which  will  repeat  in  time  the 
mystery  of  unity  in  diversity,  as  God  is  One  yet 
not  solitary.  He  seeks  to  establish  a  communion 
of  Christians  who  strive  in  love  to  be  of  one 
mind  in  order  to  receive  the  sure  gifts  of  God, 
instead  of  petty  sectaries  striving  to  vindicate 
against  each  other  selfish  and  individual  dogmas. 
The  Communion  of  Saints,  as  the  Spirit  moves  in 
the  life  of  the  Church,  is  both  an  ideal  and  a  prog- 
ress. It  is  not  the  company  of  the  favorites  of 
God  who  are  exempt  from  penalty  and  saved  as 
Pharisees,  but  are  children  growing  in  grace, 
whose  sainthood  is  the  privilege  and  practice  of 
the  Christian  life;  whose  glory  is  not  a  freedom 
from  responsibility  through  perfected  holiness,, 
but  whose  holiness  increases  as  they  manifest  the 
love  of  God,  and  become  themselves  its  witnesses 
to  men ;  who  are  saints  and  saved  because  they 
follow  Christ  in  watching  and  waiting  and  work- 
ing for  the  redemption  of  man.  By  binding  men 
to  Christ,  the  Spirit  unifies  them  together  and 
makes  into  one  fellowship  with  Him  all  the  family 
of  God,  living  and  departed,  past  and  present. 


148  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

As  they  grow  into  Christ  they  grow  into  each 
other,  and  all  must  participate  in  the  life  and 
work  and  joy  of  all ;  until  salvation  is  realized  as 
the  corporate  blessedness  of  the  Body  of  Christ, 
until  the  individual  exists  alone  in  neither  joy 
nor  pain,  until  the  need  of  the  body  is  fed  by 
each  single  member,  and  the  member  in  his  weak- 
ness is  sustained  in  time  and  eternity  by  the 
body.  Fulfilling  His  mission  as  the  Bearer  of 
Peace,  He  effectuates  and  completes  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  by  imparting  a  new  being,  in  which 
the  need  of  forgiveness  may  pass  away;  by  es- 
tablishing not  a  negative  release  from  the  effects 
of  broken  law,  but  a  positive  gift  and  power  of 
righteousness;  by  achieving  not  a  removal  of 
barriers,  but  a  growth  and  development  of  man's 
being  into  actual  unity  with  God — not  merely  a 
declaration  of  mercy  from  God,  but  a  transfor- 
mation of  man  into  the  likeness  of  divine  right- 
eousness. The  Spirit  labors  to  give  life  not  only 
to  the  natural  body,  but  also  to  the  spiritual 
body;  to  make  the  formal  life  of  man  accord 
with  the  spiritual;  to  evolve  out  of  the  material 
in  which  God  has  planted  man  the  full  man  in 
spirit  and  body;  to  produce  that  resurrection 
body  which  shall  realize  a  unity  of  being  for  man 
— a  perfect  word  for  a  perfect  thought,  a  perfect 
form  for  a  perfect  fact,  a  perfect  body  for  a  per- 
fect spirit. 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  149 

VIII.  The  eternal  life  is  that  life  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  develops  in  man  in  likeness  to  the  divine 
— the  life  wherein  the  faculties  which  are  directed 
toward  God  act  as  He  acts;  where,  as  God  in 
the  Spirit  has  entered  man  in  His  own  fulness  and 
unity,  man's  life  is  enabled  to  become  a  true 
presentation  of  God;  where  the  spiritual  quality 
and  character  of  man  increase  and  widen  his  rela- 
tionship to  God  in  Christ.  This  life  is  laid  not 
in  distinctions  of  time  and  duration,  but  in  fel- 
lowship with  God — in  independence  of  distinc- 
tions of  time  and  space,  in  timelessness,  in  abso- 
lute existence  like  God's,  in  being  because  God 
is.  Here  the  idea  of  destructibleness  passes  away, 
and  the  persistence  of  the  human  being  is  involved 
in  the  unity  of  his  life  with  God.  The  Being  of 
God  carries  that  of  His  creature.  The  life,  the 
living  in  God,  opens  into  past,  present,  and  future, 
and  exists  continually.  This  life  neither  gives 
nor  needs  proof  of  immortality,  because  it  is  con- 
scious of  it  in  its  own  oneness  with  the  life  of 
God,  and  has  its  eternal  joy  in  knowing  and  real- 
izing God  in  His  love.  The  influence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  transforms  religion  from  the  service  of  an 
external  God  and  Law-giver  into  co-operation 
with  a  Father  for  a  common  end ;  moves  man  to 
know  God  as  Love,  and  to  comprehend  His  law 
as  the  expression  of  His  love ;  enables  him  to  call 
God  a  friend,  and  to  seek  a  destiny  which  shares 


15°  THE   OFFICE  AND    WORK 

the  divine  glory  and  lifts  him  into  the  intimacy 
of  a  natural  companionship.  It  moves  him  to 
interpret  God's  law  not  only  as  exterior  com- 
mandment, but  as  equally  the  ideal  of  his  own 
desire,  and  makes  his  obedience  an  irresistible 
sympathy  instead  of  an  enforced  observance.  It 
inspires  him  to  feel  that  the  aim  of  his  being  is 
not  to  obey  God  for  an  end  wholly  independent 
of  himself,  but  to  express  out  of  his  own  spirit  a 
love  for  God  which  is  its  own  self-impelling  law, 
and  which  constrains  the  life  to  an  invincible  de- 
votion. It  presents  God  as  a  Person,  and  by 
creating  a  profound  fellowship  with  Him  makes 
man  unconscious  of  any  limit  to  obligation,  and 
drives  him  in  utter  fidelity  to  lose  himself  in  order 
that  the  will  of  God  may  be  done  and  His  good- 
ness be  declared.  It  takes  man  out  of  the  king- 
dom of  nature,  out  of  the  fact  of  the  Fall,  out  of 
the  fear  of  failure  and  sin,  and  lifts  him  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  where  he  shall  know  in  himself 
the  positive  possibilities  of  goodness  and  the  im- 
pulses which  flow  from  the  consciousness  of  a  di- 
vine birthright ;  where  he  may  grow  in  the  fear- 
lessness of  filial  love  into  the  greatness  of  his 
inheritance. 

Under  the  administration  of  the  Spirit,  the 
new  powers  and  new  knowledge  which  rise  in 
human  nature  constitute  an  ever-present  witness 
to  the  resurrected  and  ascended  Christ ;  and  the 


OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  151 

summons  to  man  to  fulfil  the  work  of  Christ  re- 
veals the  glory  to  which  God  has  called  him. 
Since  Pentecost  the  divine  method  with  humanity 
has  not  been  to  condescend  to  them  as  outcasts, 
deprived  of  likeness  to  the  Father,  but  to  unfold 
in  them  that  eternal  spiritual  capacity  which  can 
make  them  actual  sharers  of  His  nature.  He  has 
poured  out  His  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  and  hence- 
forth in  the  religion  of  the  Incarnation  the  human 
being  is  consecrated  In  the  mystery  of  a  divine 
companionship;  his  objects  are  transfigured  with 
the  greatness  of  the  divine  purpose,  his  mind  is 
illumined  to  think  God's  thoughts  after  Him,  his 
sacrifices  are  revelations  of  the  divine  love,  his 
tongue  is  touched  with  the  fire  of  an  authorita- 
tive message;  and  as  a  possessor  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  he  is  lifted  into  the  holy  company  of  Mar- 
tyrs and  Prophets  and  Apostles. 


(Brace  anb  tbe  Sacramental  S^etem* 


LECTURE   VI. 

GRACE  AND   THE   SACRAMENTAL  SYS- 
TEM. 

THE   REV.  G.    II.    S.    WALPOLE,    D.D. 

Professor  of  Systematic  Divinity  and  Dogmatic  Theology  in  the 
General  Theological  Seminary. 

The  subject  of  which  I  am  to  speak  this  even- 
ing presents  no  small  difficulty  wheji  looked  at  in 
relationship  to  the  main  trend  of  men's  thoughts 
to-day. 

At  a  time  when  the  powers  of  this  world  are 
being  generally  regarded  as  adequate  for  all  men's 
necessities,  grace  points  to  a  supernatural  force. 

At  a  time  when  the  intellect  is  claiming  to  be 
the  sole  means  through  which  spiritual  develop- 
ment may  be  perfected,  grace  points  to  certain 
humble  instruments  which,  by  their  very  simplic- 
ity, disclaim  educational  value  as  their  chief  merit. 

At  a  time  when  religious  individualism  is  ram- 
pant, the  power  of  fellowship  everywhere  dis- 
regarded, even  the  bond  of  family  prayer  set 
aside,  grace  points   to    a   Mediatorial  Kingdom, 


156  GRACE  AND    THE 

through  which  alone  man  can  arrive  at  his  per- 
fection. 

Sacramental  Grace,*  then,  in  the  idea  it  pre- 
sents, challenges  the  ground  of  that  buoyancy 
which  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  our  times. 
For  indeed,  in  spite  of  the  fires  of  discontent 
which  lie  smouldering  beneath  the  thin  crust  of 
that  surface  life  which  is  chronicled  every  day 
for  us  in  our  daily  journals,  humanity  as  repre- 
sented by  its  thought  is  proud  and  confident. 
The  golden  age  of  general  prosperity  is  sup- 
posed to  be  almost  within  hail.  Disease  after 
disease  is  disappearing  before  the  touch  of  medi- 
cal science,  blot  after  blot  is  being  removed  from 
the  moral  code,  social  inequalities  are  being  ad- 
justed, and  a  reign  of  universal  peace  is  setting  in. 

To  quote  Mr.  Fiske's  words,  "  Man  is  slowly 
passing  from  a  primitive  social  state  in  which  he 
was  little  better  than  a  brute  toward  an  ultimate 
social  state  in  which  his  character  shall  have  be- 
come so  transformed  that  nothing  of  the  brute 
can  be  detected  in  it.  The  ape  and  the  tiger  will 
become  extinct.  The  modern  prophet,  employ- 
ing the  methods  of  science,  may  again  proclaim 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."     Into  such 

*  I  have  not  discussed  the  question  of  the  various  meanings 
attached  to  the  word  "  Grace  "  in  the  New  Testament,  as  the  title 
of  the  lecture  sufficiently  indicated  what  particular  sense  I  was  to 
attach  to  it. 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  157 

a  glowing  prophecy  of  the  ultimate  issues  of 
natural  forces,  it  would  seem  almost  an  imperti- 
nence for  the  subject  of  sacramental  grace  to 
intrude  itself,  were  it  not  that  men  are  unable 
to  find  rest  in  these  great  promises  for  the 
race.  Men  are  everywhere  asking,  *'  But  what  of 
us  ?  "  If  you  tell  us  that  it  cannot  be  proved 
that  there  is  not  another  world,  nay,  that  "  it  is 
quite  likely  science  does  not  give  us  the  whole 
story,  and  that  death  may  be  but  the  dawning  of 
true  knowledge  and  true  life,"  then  we  ask,  How 
are  we  to  be  fitted  to  stand  the  bright  light  of 
that  great  sunrise  ?  The  race  may  emerge  in  the 
distant  future  from  its  brute  inheritance,  but  how 
are  we  as  individuals  to  be  free  of  it?  As  a  proof 
of  this  eager  questioning,  see  the  remarkable  evi- 
dence afforded  by  pleasure-loving  Paris,*  where 
the  Christian  faith  stands  encompassed  with  many 
infirmities  and  facing  a  hostile  government  and 
popular  prejudice.  And  yet  there  are  to  be  found 
in  the  old  historic  Church  of  Notre  Dame,  every 
week  of  this  Lenten  season,  nearly  three  thousand 
men  of  the  most  educated  classes  of  society,  and  in 
a  neighboring  parish  church  nearly  one  thousand 
men,  chiefly  of  the  working  class,  waiting  to  find 
some  answer  to  this  pressing  question  of   their 

*  See  the  account  of  the  Lenten  Conferences  and  services  held 
in  Paris  during  the  Lent  of  1891,  and  published  in  the  Guardian 
newspaper.  ' 


158  GRACE  AND    THE 

souls.  It  is  not  different  here  or  elsewhere.  In 
spite  of  the  press  of  business,  or  the  labor  of  me- 
chanical work,  the  old  question,  "  How  may  I  save 
my  soul  ?  "  or,  to  put  it  in  a  modern  dress,  *'  How 
may  I  be  fitted  for  that  dawn  of  true  knowledge 
and  true  life  ?  "  is  still  imperious  in  its  demand. 
The  subject  of  sacramental  grace,  which  has  an 
answer  to  this  question,  cannot  then  be  out  of 
place. 

But  further,  looking  at  the  subject  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  course  of  which  it  is  a  part,  we  see  that 
it  naturally  forms  a  fitting  conclusion  to  that 
series  of  dogmas  that  has  been  presented  to  us. 
Humanity  was  taken  into  God,  reconciled  to  the 
Father,  indwelt  by  the  Holy  Ghost  that  it  might 
be  perfected  by  the  impartition  of  the  Divine 
nature. 

Perfection — yes,  that  is  the  purpose  of  the  ex- 
traordinary condescension  of  God  manifested  in 
the  Incarnation;  and  it  is  this  we  must  first  con- 
sider, or  the  need  and  particular  virtue  of  grace 
may  "be  imperfectly  comprehended.  If  God's 
ultimate  object  with  us  were  but  the  change  of 
our  circumstances,  earth  for  heaven,  then  indeed 
we  might  fail  to  see  the  necessity  of  grace;  but 
if  it  be  full  completed  growth  after  such  a  meas- 
ure as  ^'  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ,"  then 
how  can  we  attain  without  it?  The  throwing  off 
the  brute  inheritance  were  much;  but  the  like- 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  159 

ness  to  Christ  is  something  more,  preaching  as  it 
does  the  highest  courage,  the  most  unfaltering 
loyalty,  the  most  complete  devotion  to  God  and 
man. 

Perhaps  we  can  best  grasp  the  future  that 
is  held  out  to  us,  if  we  look  at  some  of  the 
powers  which  Revelation  tells  us  will  be  com- 
mitted to  our  hands.  Characterized  as  our  life 
is  by  weakness,  we  can  hardly  take  in  the  visions 
of  future  strength  that  are  shown  us.  We  see 
One  radiant  in  glory  and  power,  no  longer  sub- 
jected to  weakness,  infirmity,  or  suffering,  with  a 
Body  like  unto  ours  save  that  it  is  infinitely  en- 
nobled and  glorified,  appearing  here  or  there  ac- 
cording to  will,  controlling  the  powers  of  nature, 
overriding  by  some  higher  law  the  ordinary  laws 
of  our  world,  finding  no  obstacle  in  matter,  as- 
cending into  the  heavens.  And  as  we  look,  we 
are  told  that  our  bodies  are  to  be  fashioned  like 
unto  His  glorious  body,  that  they  are  to  be  raised 
in  power,  glory,  and  honor;  and  that  we  shall  be 
"  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."*  And 
then,  looking  away  from  this  "exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory,"f  as  St.  Paul  calls  it — a 
glory  surpassing  our  present  humiliation  immeas- 
urably more  than  the  most  gorgeous  flower  sur- 
passes the  dull  brown  seed  from  which  it  sprang, — 
looking  away,  I  say,  to  those  visions  that  are  given 

*  Phil,  iii.  21.     I  John  iii.  2.  f  2  Cor.  iv.  17. 


i6o  GRACE  AND    THE 

US  of  the  ''  divine  offices  that  suit  these  full-grown 
energies,"  we  find  ourselves  immersed  in  the 
marvellous  activity  of  a  great  city  life,  under- 
taking duties  that  here  we  cannot  dream  of,  hav- 
ing authority  given  us  over  two,  five,  ten  cities ; 
sitting  in  judgment  over  angels,  having  power 
over  the  nations,  ruling  them  with  a  rod  of  iron — 
nay,  sharing  the  very  throne  of  the  Lord  Himself.* 

As  our  imagination  attempts  to  fill  in  these 
splendid  outlines  of  wonderful  spheres  of  influ- 
ence, we  learn  the  necessity  of  grace,  for  we  ask 
who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  It  is  clear  we 
must  be  changed — but  how  ?  The  best  education 
earth  can  afford,  its  most  stimulating  examples 
are  all  unequal  to  develop  such  spiritual  power, 
such  iron  strength,  such  a  wide  and  sovereign 
influence  as  is  here  spoken  of. 

And  this  necessity  becomes  still  more  apparent 
when  we  have  the  courage  to  look  steadily  at  our 
present  condition.  Conscious  of  a  will  that  swerves 
at  the  most  trifling  discomforts,  of  a  mind  that 
can  scarcely  contemplate  God  or  heaven  for  an 
hour  together,  of  a  spirit  so  weak  that  it  fails  to 
move  even  children,  we  feel  that  that  high  destiny 
cannot  be  ours — we  grow  despondent;  we  assent 
at  once  to  Shelley  when  he  cries : 

The  Universe 
In  Nature's  silent  eloquence  declares 

*  Luke  xix.     i  Cor.  vi.  3.        Rev.  ii.  26,  27.     Rev.  iii.  21. 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM,  l6l 

That  all  fulfil  the  work  of  love  and  joy — 
All  but  the  outcast  man — 

We  sadly  recognize  the  truth  of  Byron's  words : 

How  beautiful  is  all  this  visible  world, 

How  glorious  in  its  action  and  itself  : 

But  we,  who  name  ourselves  its  sovereign,  we, 

Half  dust,  half  deity,  alike  unfit 

To  sink  or  soar,  with  our  mixed  essence,  make 

A  conflict  of  its  elements  and  breathe 

The  breath  of  degradation,  and  of  pride. 

Contending  with  low  wants  and  lofty  will 

Till  our  mortality  predominates, 

And  men  are — what  they  name  not  to  themselves 

And  trust  not  to  each  other. 

We  feel  the  power  of  the  Scripture  assertions: 
''  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh;  "  "All 
have  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  ;  "  "  There  is 
none  that  doeth  good — no,  not  one  ;  "  "  Who  can 
bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ?  "  And 
yet  though  we  feel  we  cannot  rise,  we  refuse  to 
sink.  "Half  dust  "  we  know  ourselves  to  be  and 
yet  "  half  deity,"  we  cannot  help  hoping  we  may 
become.  The  prophetic  vision  surpasses  our  capa- 
bilities, and  yet  strangely  enough  exceeds  not  our 
hopes.  With  its  unshaken  loyalty,  and  its  mighty 
wide-reaching  influence,  it  calls  up  before  the  im- 
agination a  "  great  gulf  fixed ;  "  and  yet,  when  the 
judgment  condemns  the  leap  to  be  suicidal,  the 
heart  will  not  be  deterred  from  attempting  it. 

Ah!  there  is  nothing  more  pathetic   in  man's 


1 62  GRACE  AND    THE 

history  than  this  perpetual  struggle  between  our 
baser  selves  and  our  divine  hopes.  "  Pride  con- 
tending with  low  wants  and  lofty  will  till  our 
mortality  predominates."  *' Alike  unfit  to  sink 
or  soar." 

But  we  ask,  Is  this  our  only  revelation  ?  Can 
we  reach  no  further  than  this  humiliating  con- 
fession that  grace  is  necessary  ?  "  Surely,"  we 
say,  "  He  who  has  given  the  hope  will  enable 
us  to  attain  it."  And  so  we  find,  for  in  the  In- 
carnation we  have  the  pledge  of  it.  In  that 
divine  uplifting  of  human  nature,  the  possible 
perfection  of  all  that  bears  the  name  of  man  is 
assured.  The  Eternal  Son  can  henceforth  ac- 
count nothing  human  as  foreign  to  Him. 

The  knowledge  of  this  great  fact  braces  our 
wills  and  kindles  our  hopes ;  but  knowledge  is  not 
sufficient  for  this  huge  task  that  lies  before  us. 
Knowledge  cannot  bridge  over  that  wide  gulf. 
It  is  not  enough  to  know  that  we  may  hope. 
Our  ignorance  is  not  the  worst  thing  about  us. 
There  is  something  worse  than  ignorance,  and 
that  is  a  perverted  nature.  St.  Paul  had  knowl- 
edge, but  he  confesses  its  weakness.  He  declares 
that  he  knew  that  God's  will  was  spiritual,— nay, 
that  his  inward  man  delighted  in  it, — but  he  found 
another  law  in  his  members  warring  against  the 
law  of  his  mind  and  bringing  him  into  captivity,* 

*  Rom.  vii.  22,  23,  24. 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  163 

and  in  an  agony  he  cries  out :  "  Who  shall  deliver 
me  from  the  bondage  of  this  death?  " 

This  '*  law  in  his  members "  was  the  law  of 
nature  and  nature  is  stronger  than  knowledge. 
This  is  seen,  I  think,  if  we  compare  their  effects 
upon  our  destinies  here.  Let  us  look  at  this  for 
a  moment.  Compare  the  effects  of  nature  and 
what  we  call  education,  upon  one's  destinies  here. 
The  infant,  when  it  utters  its  first  cry,  seems  as 
far  off  its  earthly  destiny  as  we  from  our  heav- 
enly. What  sign  is  there  that  those  baby  fingers 
that  can  scarce  hold  a  feather  may  awake  thou- 
sands to  a  world  before  closed  to  them?  What 
likelihood  that  that  voice  so  harsh  may  one  day 
hold  multitudes  spell-bound  ?  What  probability 
that  that  mind  scarcely  conscious  may  weave 
thoughts  that  will  stir  generations  unborn  ? 
Wherein,  humanly  speaking,  lies  the  best  hope 
of  the  fulfilment  of  its  destiny?  On  its  edu- 
cation or  on  that  nature  it  inherits  from  its 
parents  ?  We  need  not  stay  long  in  our  an- 
swer. There  is  a  presumption  that  the  musician's 
son  will  find  out  fresh  secrets  in  the  world  of 
music ;  there  is  a  possibility  that  the  orator's  son 
will  show  some  power  of  eloquence;  there  is  a 
probability  that  the  offspring  of  a  great  thinker 
will  master  some  new  fields  of  thought.  This 
we  freely  recognize.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  do  not  look  for  a  Mozart  from  the  Patagonian, 


164  GRACE  AND    THE 

nor  a  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  from  the  Syrian,  nor 
a  Shakespeare  from  the  Australian  black.  It  is 
true  that  science  has  not  yet  told  us  by  what  law 
this  probability  exists  as  a  probability;  but  we 
recognize  it  as  a  fact.  We  call  it  the  law  of 
heredity. 

And  this  mysterious  law  affects  not  only  what 
we  call  talents,  but  in  a  more  universal  way  char- 
acter. Judge  Patteson  and  his  saintly  wife  en- 
riched the  world  with  the  martyr,  John  Coleridge 
Patteson  ;  Margaret,  the  poor  "  gutter-child  "  of 
the  upper  Hudson,  impoverished  it  by  her  de- 
scendants, of  whom  no  less  than  two  hundred  are 
said  to  have  been  criminals.'"  This  subtle,  unseen 
power  of  nature,  acting  in  ways  we  know  nothing 
of,  predetermines  character,  gives  it  a  set,  a  prej- 
udice, a  bias;  and  it  is  terrible  to  know  that,  so 
far  as  our  spiritual  destiny  is  concerned,  this  prej- 
udice is  for  death  rather  than  life,  "  In  Adam 
all  die,"'t'  is  the  sad  exclamation  of  the  Apostle. 
"  Death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over 
them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  like  ness  of 
Adam's  transgression. ":j;  We  are  then  here  con- 
fronted with  a  greater  and  more  powerful  ob- 
stacle to  the  realization  of  our  destiny  than  igno- 
rance, an  obstacle  which  knowledge  cannot  re- 
move. 

*  Herbert  Spencer:   *'  Man  versus  the  State,"  p.  69. 
f  I  Cor.  XV.  22.  :j;  Rom.  v.  19. 


SACRAMENTAL  SYSTEM.  1 65 

This  is  even  admitted  by  one  whose  only  gospel 
was  culture,  whose  only  weapon  was  education. 
A  late  leader  of  the  Positivist  School  in  Eng- 
land (Mr.  Cotter  Morrison)  frankly  admits  that 
for  some  there  is  no  remedy  at  all.* 

"  There  are  some  soils,"  he  says,  "  which  no  far- 
mer in  his  senses  would  think  of  ploughing,  ma- 
nuring, and  sowing.  There  are  kinds  of  vegeta- 
bles and  stocks  of  cattle  which  are  recognized  as 
unfit  for  profitable  culture.  It  is  the  same  with 
human  qualities.  There  are  men  whose  quality 
is  to  manifest  from  their  earlier  years  a  bias  to 
vicious  and  malignant  crimes;  there  are  men 
whose  bias  is  in  the  contrary  direction.  And 
these  differences  are  congenital.  We  may  be 
sure  that  no  moral  training  will  ever  turn  the 
bad  into  good,  the  evil  constitution  into  the 
vigorous  and  moral.  Nothing  is  gained  by  dis- 
guising the  fact  that  there  is  no  remedy  for  a 
bad  heart  and  no  substitute  for  a  good  one.  The 
sooner  we  recognize  that  bad  men  will  be  bad, 
do  what  we  will,  the  sooner  we  shall  c-onie  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  welfare  of  society  demands 
the  suppression  or  elimination  of  bad  men.  It 
has  a  right  not  only  to  exclude  them  from  its 
fellowship,  not  only  to  prevent  and  punish  their 
evil  actions,  but  above  all  to  prevent  their  leav- 
ing a  posterity  as  wicked  as  themselves." 
*  *'  Service  of  Man,"  pp.  290-295, 


t66  grace  and  the 

This  is  the  witness  not  only  of  a  polished 
thinker,  but  of  a  man  who  loved  humanity:  the 
very  sentences  I  have  quoted  occur  in  the  book 
which  he  entitled  the  *'  Service  of  Man ; "  and 
with  him  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  appears  to  agree. 
A  time  may  come  again  when  some  enlightened 
Pharaoh  will  commend  to  his  government  the 
policy  of  destroying  the  children  of  a  criminal 
population  lest  they  ''become  too  strong." 

The  world,  then,  speaking  through  one  of  her 
able  thinkers,  regards  nature  in  certain  cases  as 
so  much  stronger  than  knowledge  that  some 
individuals  it  would  destroy  for  the  service  of 
the  state. 

Now  it  has  always  been  the  singular  merit  of 
the  Church,  that  though  she  has  forced  her  way 
into  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  she  has  never 
regarded  any  as  being  too  bad  to  be  reformed. 
Both  in  theory  and  practice  she  has  thrown  her 
gates  wide  open  to  the  poor  lepers  of  society. 
By  her  penitentiaries,  her  homes  for  the  fallen, 
the  outcast  and  the  inebriate,  she  proclaims 
everywhere  that  none  need  despair  who  enter 
her  doors — that  there  is  healing  medicine  for  the 
worst. 

And  on  what  does  she  rely  ?  Does  she  look 
to  that  weapon  which  the  world,  as  we  have  seen, 
confesses  in  some  cases  to  be  useless  ?  Does  she 
rely  on  the  powerful  preaching  of  the  Word,  on 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  167 

inspiring  pictures  of  the  love  of  God,  on  all  the 
varied  instruments  of  education  ?  Not  mainly. 
She  uses  them  as  God-given  means  for  awakening 
the  soul  to  its  need ;  but  she  does  not  expect  to 
satisfy  the  need  itself  with  them.  For  this  she 
relies  on  grace.  It  was,  as  Hooker*  reminds  us, 
an  old  gnostic  heresy,  "  that  had  knowledge  in 
such  admiration  that  to  it  they  ascribed  all  and 
so  despised  the  sacraments  of  Christ— pretend- 
ing that,  as  ignorance  had  made  us  subject  to 
all  misery,  so  the  full  redemption  of  the  inward 
man  and  the  work  of  our  restoration  must  needs 
belong  unto  knowledge  only!'  No,  the  Church 
looks  to  "the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
"  I  believe  in  one  Baptism  for  the  remission  of 
sins."  This  is  her  proclamation  in  the  East  and 
West — in  the  old  world  and  the  new.  It  was  her 
first,  as  we  believe  it  will  be  her  last. 

When,  as  a  new  creation  but  a  few  hours  old, 
she  faced  the  great  world  in  the  plenitude  of  her 
inspiration,  she  replied  to  the  anxious  question, 
'*  What  shall  we  do  ?  "  f  with  but  two  directions: 
"  Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you  in  the 
Name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission  of  sins, 
and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

How,  indeed,  could  she  do  otherwise  ?  She  had 
no  other  commission.     But  a  few  days  back,  she 

*  Hooker  :    "  Eccles.  Polity,"  v.,  Ix.  4. 
f  Acts  ii.  38. 


1 68  GRACE  AND    THE 

had  received  from  her  Lord,  who  stood  in  the 
midst  of  her,  this  great  charge : 

*' All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in  Heaven  and 
upon  earth. 

Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations. 

Baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things,  whatso- 
ever I  commanded  you. 

And,  lo!  I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world." 

The  words  speak  of  an  external  power,  the 
exercise  of  which  depends  on  Christ's  Presence. 

The  stern  Roman,  the  cultured  Greek,  the 
lascivious  Asiatic,  the  wild,  ignorant  cunning 
Arab,  were  to  be  brought  to  the  feet  of  their 
Master,  to  become  His  disciples  and  to  learn  His 
mind  and  to  be  possessed  of  the  secret  of  His 
great  life,  not  by  an  inspiring  example,  not  even 
by  knowledge  in  the  first  place,  but  by  grace. 

Mr.  Morrison,  the  Positivist,  rightly  says: 
"There  must  first  be  some  original  quality  to 
begin  upon.  Cultivation  is  only  rationally  ap- 
plied where  there  is  original  quality  capable  of 
receiving  it."  This  is  the  teaching  of  the  Lord 
Christ — Baptism  into  the  Name  first,  teaching 
second;  grace  first,  knowledge  second. 

This  doctrine,  new  as  it  may  seem  to  some  to- 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM,  169 

day, was  not  new  to  the  Apostles.  For  three  years 
our  Lord  had  been  impressing  on  their  minds  but 
two  great  truths — man's  need;  God's  grace. 

The  first  He  excited  by  drawing  such  a  picture 
of  man  at  his  best  that  even  to-day  it  excites  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  world. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  been  accused 
of  being  impracticable,  an  impossible  ideal;  but 
no  one  has  charged  it  with  being  imperfect. 

With  that  highest  standard,  "  become  perfect 
even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  He 
left  men  to  feel  their  need  ;  and  when  human 
nature  confesses  its  powerlessness  and  cries  out  in 
despair:  "  If  this  is  to  be  my  standard,  who  then 
can  be  saved  ?  "*  He  reminds  it  that  "  With  men 
it  is  impossible,  but  with  God  all  things  are  possi- 
ble." 

Men  are  quite  right  in  charging  the  standard 
of  Christ  as  an  impossible  human  standard,  if  by 
this  they  mean  that  man  cannot  reach  it  by  him- 
self. It  is  only  what  our  Lord  Himself  says  again 
and  again :  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh.  Apart  from  Me  ye  can  do  nothing."  But 
while  teaching  men  their  absolute  impotency  in 
words  that  cannot  be  explained  away,  He  shows 
equally  clearly  that  there  is  a  power  now  within 
the  reach  of  all  men  which  will  accomplish  all 
that  is  set  before  them. 

*  Mark  x.  27. 


I70  GRACE  AND    THE 

The  Kingdom  of  God  in  its  life,  its  powers,  its 
extraordinary  privileges,  is  beyond  the  effort  of 
the  greatest  natural  genius — nay,  beyond  a  John 
the  Baptist ;  but  he  who  is  born  of  water  and  of 
the  Spirit  at  once  enters  within  the  circle  of  its 
life-giving  blessings.* 

The  life  which  is  called  everlasting  life,  with  its 
supreme  devotion  to  God,  its  unwearying  sym- 
pathy with  man,  not  only  seems,  but  is  beyond 
the  grasp  of  human  powers,  and  yet  '*  he  that 
eateth  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  and  drinks 
His  blood  "  has  it.f  ''  The  life  dwells  in  him  and 
he  in  the  life."  Nothing  could  be  plainer  than 
this  language.  Whatever  may  be  meant  by  birth, 
whatever  by  "  the  Flesh  and  Blood  of  the  Son  of 
man,"  it  is  only  by  realizing  their  meaning  that 
we  can  gain  what  we  seek. 

Now  it  is  at  once  plain  that  something  more 
mysterious  is  intended  by  these  phrases  than 
that  which  we  may  call  the  results  of  Christian 
education,  or  preaching.  To  assert  that  by  birth 
we  mean  simply  what  we  call  conversion — i.e,^  a 
change  or  development  of  life  already  existing — is 
not  only  to  assert  that  our  Lord  purposely  used 
difficult  language  instead  of  plain  language,  but 
to  contradict,  as  Hooker  :j:  points  out,  every  an- 
cient interpretation    of   the   passage.     And    Dr. 

*  Luke  vii.  28.     John  iii.  5.  f  John  vi.  54,  56. 

\  "  Eccles.  Polity,"  v.,  x.  3. 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  iji 

Dale,'^  the  eminent  Congregationalist  minister, 
uses  still  stronger  language.  "  Such  a  description 
is  theologically  false  and  practically  most  perni- 
cious and  misleading.  Regeneration  is  not  a 
change  in  a  man's  life,  but  the  beginning  of  a  new 
life,  which  is  conferred  by  the  immediate  and  su- 
pernatural act  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  man  is 
really  born  again.  A  higher  nature  comes  to  him 
than  that  which  he  inherited  from  his  human 
parents.  He  is  begotten  of  God — born  of  the 
Spirit." 

It  is  not  easy  to  give  any  other  than  the 
Catholic  meaning  to  our  Lord's  words  to  Nico- 
demus,  but  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  interpret  in 
any  other  way  His  words  to  the  men  of  Caper- 
naum. 

Here  again  we  may  not  only  appeal  with  con- 
fidence to  the  Catholic  writers  of  the  Church  at 
all  times  and  in  all  places,  but  be  helped  by  the 
clear,  strong  statement  of  the  Protestant,  Prof. 
Godet,  one  of  the  greatest  living  commentators 
on  the  writings  of  St.  John.  This  is  the  witness 
of  this  Swiss  pastor  of  Neuchatel: 

"  If  the  words  *  except  ye  eat  the  Flesh  of  the 
Son  of  Man  and  drink  His  blood  '  f  refer  to  the 
purely  spiritual  idea  of  appropriating  His  holy  life, 
of  believing  in  His  atoning  Death,  does  He  not 

*  "  Lectures  on  the  Ephesians,"pp.  44-46, 
f  Godet,  St.  John  vi.  58. 


172  GRACE  AND    THE 

seem  to  be  playing  upon  the  words,  and  giving 
needless  cause  of  offence  to  the  Jews  ?  There  is 
no  figure  of  speech  except  in  the  ex-pressions  *  eat 
and  drink ' — the  corporeal  side  of  communion 
with  Him  is  perfectly  real  and  must  be  taken 
literally." 

Now  what  do  these  interpretations  mean? 
What  does  Dr.  Dale  mean  by  the  words  *'  a  higher 
nature  comes  to  us,"  and  Prof.  Godet  by  the 
words  "  the  corporeal  side  of  communion  with 
Christ  is  perfectly  real  and  must  be  taken  liter- 
ally." 

What  do  they  mean  but  what  Hooker"^  has 
so  well  said,  that  "  Adam  is  in  us  as  an  original 
cause  of  nature,  and  of  that  corruption  of  nature 
which  causeth  death,  Christ  as  the  cause  orig- 
inal of  restoration  to  life.  As  therefore  we  are 
really  partakers  of  the  body  of  sin  and  death  re- 
ceived from  Adam,  so  except  we  be  truly  par- 
takers of  Christ  and  as  really  possessed  of  His 
Spirit,  all  we  speak  of  eternal  life  is  but  a  dream." 

Yes,  "  By  grace  we  are  saved  through  faith,  and 
that  not  of  ourselves;  it  is  the  gift  of  God."  f  So 
the  prophetic  foresight  of  Plato,  that  we  are 
allured  to  virtue  not  by  teaching,  not  by  our 
own  nature,  but  by  the  influence  of  the  gods,  is 
now  realized  by  the  fulfilment  of  the  blessed 
promises  of  Christ. 

*  Hooker,  v.,  Ivi,  8,         f  Eph,  ii.  8. 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  173 

For  by  "grace"  we  mean,  as  has  been  said,'" 
"  not  what  the  witty  and  free-thinking  gentlemen 
of  Bishop  Berkeley's  day  represented  it  as  being — 
nothing  but  an  empty  name — but  an  active  spirit- 
ual force." 

By  grace  we  mean,  not  simply  kindly  feeling 
on  the  part  of  God,  but,  as  Dr.  Liddon  f  has  put  it, 
"  the  might  of  the  Everlasting  Spirit  renovating 
man  by  uniting  him  whether  immediately  or 
through  the  sacraments  to  the  sacred  manhood 
of  the  Word  incarnate."  The  effect  of  grace, 
then,  is  not  that  of  a  picture  on  the  mind,  or 
of  words  on  the  ear,  but,  to  use  Hooker's:]: 
words,  "a  real  transmutation  of  our  souls  and 
bodies  from  sin  to  righteousness,  from  death  and 
corruption  to  immortality."  And  so  we  under- 
stand those  expressions  of  which  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  full,  to  be  statements  of  fact  and  not  mere 
metaphorical  expressions. 

We  believe  that  St.  Paul,§  when  he  said  that 
Christ  lived  in  him  and  he  in  Christ,  meant 
something  more  than  that  he  was  permeated  by 
the  genius  of  Christianity;  we  believe  that  St. 
Peter,!  when  he  declared  that  through  the  realiza- 

*  Paget:  "  Faculties  and  Difiicultics  for  Belief  and  Disbelief," 

P-  193. 

f  "  Univ.  Sermons,"  ist  series,  p.  44. 
X  Hooker  '  Eccles.  Polit}-,"  v.  67,  6. 
§  St.  Paul,  Gal.  ii.20.  I  2  Peter  i.  4. 


174  GRACE  AND    THE 

tion  of  Christ's  promises  we  become  partakers  of 
the  Divine  nature,  meant  something  more  than 
that  "  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being " 
in  God ;  we  believe  that  when  St.  John  speaks 
of  "  abiding  in  Christ,"  *' having  Christ,"  "being 
begotten  of  God,"  he  is  meaning  something  more 
than  is  intended  by  a  mere  faithful  contempla- 
tion of  the  Saviour;  we  believe  that  where  He 
is  spoken  of  as  "  the  Second  Man  " — "  the  last 
Adam,"  "^  we  are  intended  to  understand  that 
as  there  is  a  real  presence  of  Adam  in  all  his 
children,  so  there  is  a  real  Presence  of  Christ 
in  all  His  members."  And  believing  this,  as 
the  Church  always  has  believed  it;  believing,  as 
St.  Leo  f  says,  that  "  by  the  grace  of  Christ  we 
are  transformed  into  the  very  flesh  of  Him  who 
by  His  Incarnation  took  ours;"  believing,  with 
Bishop  Andrews,:}:  that  "  Christ  has  gone  to  the 
root  and  repaired  our  nature  from  the  very 
foundation,  so  that  what  had  been  there  defiled 
and  decayed  by  the  first  Adam  might  be  cleansed 
and  set  right  again;  "  believing,  with  the  learned 
Dean  Jackson,  that  "  Christ's  humanity  is  the 
organ  or  conduit  by  which  we  are  united  and  rec- 

*  Malcolm  MacColl  :  "  Christianity  in  Relation  to  Science,"  p. 

244. 

f  St.  Leo,  quoted  by  Wilberforce  on   "  The  Incarnation,"  p. 
206. 

X  Bishop  Andrews,  Sermon  ix.,  on  "  The  Nativity." 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  175 

onciled  unto  the  Divine  Nature;"  believing  this 
old  Gospel,  the  Church  is  able  to  go  into  the  dark 
places  of  the  earth  with  confidence;  she  has  a 
remedy  for  the  moral  wrecks  of  humanity.'^ 

She  tells  society  that  she  need  not  extermi- 
nate by  poison  or  the  rifle  the  poor  wretched  Mar- 
garets of  modern  life ;  she  need  not  drown  or 
strangle  their  babes.  For  she  has  a  power  that 
will  match  these  unseen  powers  of  hell.  She  will 
cleanse  one  nature  by  another.  The  false  shall  be 
purged  by  the  true. 

We  cannot,  indeed,  give  the  poor  girl  that 
crouches  along  the  streets  in  her  first  shame  the 
stainless  nature  of  a  mother  whose  family  has 
not  for  generations  known  impurity;  we  cannot 
give  the  low,  cunning  Arab  the  inheritance  of  a 
Gordon  or  a  Washington  :  but,  though  the  nature 
of  the  great  and  pure  on  earth  be  closed  to  them, 
the  nature  of  the  God-Man  is  open.  Though  they 
cannot  be  children  of  women  like  Sister  Dora  or 
Catharine  of  Siena,  they  can  be  the  children  of 
Christ ;  though  they  cannot  receive  a  mere  earthly 
nature  that  has  been  for  years  and  years  self  disci- 
plined, honest  and  faithful,  they  can  receive  a  di- 
vine nature  that  has  known  no  weakness,  no  sin — a 
nature  human  in  its  sympathies,  but  divine  in  its 
strength. 

We  have  seen    our  need ;  we  have   seen    the 

*  Jackson's  Comm.  on  the  Creed,  xi.  3-12. 


176  GRACE  AND    THE 

gracious  provision  Christ  has  made  for  us — how 
it  answers  to  our  necessities;  we  must  now  show 
by  what  system  it  is  conveyed  to  us.  And  to 
this  there  are  in  the  main  three  different  answers; 
(i)  That  by  the  Incarnation  this  provision  is 
in  every  man,  for  Christ  is  the  Head  of  every 
man. 

(2)  That  it  is  external  to  us,  but  we  receive  it 
by  direct  spiritual  contact  of  faith  without  the 
interposition  of  any  means. 

(3)  That  it  is  given  through  divinely  authorized 
means  and  received  by  faith. 

The  first  of  these  requires  our  earnest  attention, 
because  that  or  a  doctrine  not  very  far  removed 
from  it  is  for  reasons  which  I  need  not  now  give, 
becoming  widely  popular  in  our  sadl.y  divided 
Christendom. 

It  owes  whatever  strength  it  has  to  the  appar- 
ent narrowness  which  seems,  though  it  really  does 
not,  to  characterize  the  second  and  third.  It  is 
a  Gospel,  so  it  is  claimed,  which  appeals  to  every 
man.  "  Tell  men  they  are  children  of  God ;  that 
Christ  indwells  them  and  they  indwell  Christ; 
open  their  eyes  to  what  they  have,  not  to  what 
they  are  without ;  proclaim  them  by  nature  chil- 
dren of  grace,  and  tell  them  they  have  but  to 
make  an  effort  to  reach  the  glorious  possibilities 
of  their  future;"  this  is  the  modern  Gospel.  In 
this    system  sacraments   are   helps   indeed,    but 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  i77 

rather  as  pictures,  as  symbolizing  what  has  al- 
ready taken  place.  They  may  even,  so  it  is  said, 
be  described  in  the  words  of  the  Catechism  as 
**  means  of  grace,"  inasmuch  as  they  serve  to  help 
men  to  realize  what  they  would  otherwise  forget, 
just  as  the  wedding-ring  reminds  the  married  of 
their  privileges  and  responsibilities. 

This  theory,  which  has  such  a  fascination  about 
it,  inasmuch  as  it  brings  the  mighty  workings  of 
God  more  nearly  within  our  comprehension,  and 
flatters  our  poor,  weak  human  nature,  is  open  to 
grave  and  serious  objection. 

(i)  It  fails  to  take  account  of  the  many  pas- 
sages in  which  our  Lord  takes  pains  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  in  spite  of  the  Incarnation  man's  nat- 
ural condition  is  so  far  a  wreck  that  nothing  but 
the  external  intervention  of  God  can  restore  it ; 
that  though  the  Incarnation  was  indeed  the  taking 
of  the  manhood  into  God,  did  indeed  confer  mar- 
vellous benefits  on  the  whole  race,  yet  each  individ- 
ual must  be  personally  incorporated  into  Christ. 
Instead  of  looking  upon  men  as  naturally  inside 
the  Kingdom,  He  told  them  they  must  be  born 
again  in  order  to  enter  it;  instead  of  telling  men 
they  were  in  Him  and  He  in  them,  He  bids  them 
come  to  Him  that  they  may  have  life;  instead 
of  looking  upon  the  individuals  composing  the 
race  as  already  His  members.  He  bids  His  disci- 
ples by  baptizing  them  to  make  them  His  mem- 
bers. 


178  GRACE  AND    THE 

(2)  It  ignores  the  great  truth  of  mediation 
which  underlies  all  our  Lord's  teaching — that 
truth  which  He  expressed  when  He  said:  "No 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me.  I  am 
the  Door.  He  that  entereth  not  by  the  Door,  but 
climbeth  up  some  other  way,  is  a  thief  and  a  rob- 
ber." "^  According  to  its  conception,  man  is  born 
in  possession  of  divine  life,  though  he  may  know 
it  not.  He  consequently  needs  nothing  but  the 
inspiring  example  of  the  Saviour  to  reach  his 
ideal;  hence  the  all-important  place  that  preach- 
ing occupies  in  this  system.  Our  Lord's  medi- 
ation is  thus  reduced  to  the  inspiration  of  a 
prophet.  Our  Lord  is  by  the  side  of  the  soul 
urging,  exhorting,  directing  as  one  man  may  do 
to  another,  but  is  in  no  proper  sense  a  mediator, 
a  channel  through  which  we  may  reach  God. 

(3)  By  virtually  assuming  that  the  sacraments 
are  only  forms  of  ritual,  it  at  once  encounters 
serious  difficulties. 

We  are  to  suppose  that  our  Lord  on  the  night 
in  which  He  was  betrayed — that  night  when,  as 
the  torn  veil  plainly  showed,  shadows  were  to 
give  place  to  substances — was  replacing  one  pat- 
tern by  another,  was  removing  the  time-honored 
and  exceedingly  suggestive  ritual  of  the  Passover 
by  the  comparatively  dumb  ritual  of  Bread  and 
Wine. 

*  John  xiv.  6 ;  X.,  9,  I. 


SACRAMENTAL  SYSTEM.  I79 

We  are  to  suppose  that  on  almost  the  last  oc- 
casion when  He  appeared  on  earth,  He  is  send- 
ing His  little  force  of  eleven  men  to  conquer  the 
world  with  a  bare  ceremony  and  a  body  of  teach- 
ing. 

We  are  to  suppose  that  this  empty  ritual  of 
Baptism,  which  has  no  more  significance  than  a 
ring,  could,  within  a  very  few  years  of  our  Lord's 
life,  grow  to  such  importance  that  on  one  occa- 
sion the  journey  of  a  high  official  of  the  court  of 
Ethiopia  must  be  stayed  to  perform  it;  that  on 
another  its  urgency  is  considered  of  such  im- 
portant concern  that  it  is  performed  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  night  in  the  prison  at  Philippi,  when 
the  candidates  for  it  have  been  rudely  shaken  by 
the  excitement  of  a  terrible  earthquake;  that  on 
yet  another  it  not  only  seals  the  reality  of  St. 
Paul's  conversion,  but  itself  is  declared  to  be  the 
means  whereby  His  sins  are  to  be  washed  away. 

We  are  further  to  suppose,  with  regard  to  the 
other  rite,  that  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  that  our 
Lord  has  such  concern  about  the  right  perform- 
ance of  what  is  only  a  religious  ceremony,  that 
He  not  only  makes  it  a  matter  of  special  revela- 
tion to  the  mind  of  St.  Paul,  but  strikes  the 
Corinthians  who  profaned  it  with  sickness — nay, 
even  with  death. 

We  are  to  suppose  that  within  thirty  years 
the  Church's  appreciation  of  these  forms  has  be- 


l8o  GRACE  AND    THE 

come  so  extravagant  that  her  writers — especially 
the  very  Apostle  who  is  so  fierce  in  his  denuncia- 
tion of  every  observance  that  takes  the  place  of 
Christ — invest  them  with  a  majestic  solemnity — 
St.  Paul  speaking  of  Baptism  *  as  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  f  as  being 
"the  sharing  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ." 
We  are  to  suppose  that  the  whole  Church  from 
the  outset  has  surrounded  simple  rites  with  awe- 
inspiring  language.  St.  Ignatius,  %  an  apostolic 
disciple,  speaks  of  Baptism  as  the  Christian's  spir- 
itual armor — of  the  Holy  Eucharist  as  "  the  Bread 
of  God."  The  Epistle  of  Barnabas,§  written 
within  at  least  fifty  years  of  St.  John's  death, 
boldly  declares  that  we  go  down  into  the  water 
full  of  sins  and  pollutions,  but  come  up  again 
bringing  forth  fruit.  Justin  Martyr,  writing  a 
little  later,  asserts  that  we  do  not  receive  in  the 
Eucharist  common  bread  and  common  drink,  but 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  Incarnate  Lord.  Ter- 
tullian  II  dares  to  call  Holy  Baptism  "  the  blessed 
sacrament  of  water."  We  are  to  suppose  that 
this  lofty  language  investing  these  simple  rites 
with  mystery  was  created  at  a  time  when  their 
celebration  in  bare  rooms,  caves,  and  holes  of 
the  earth  was  necessarily  of  the  severest  and 
most  simple  character.     A  splendid  ritual  might 

*  I  Cor.  xii.  13.  f  I  Cor.  x.  16.         %  Ad.  Polyc.  vii. 

§  C.  12.  II  Apol.  i.  93  ;  De  Baptismo,  c.  1. 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  l8i 

perhaps  blind  the  eyes  of  the  weak  and  force 
poetry  and  metaphorical  language  from  the 
heart  of  emotional  Easterns,  but  not  these  quiet, 
secret,  severely  simple  Eucharists  of  the  first 
Christians. 

But  again,  their  conduct  is  as  strange  as  their 
words. 

We  are  to  suppose  that  such  a  strange  devo- 
tion for  ritual  has  sprung  up  that  even  prudent 
men  and  gentle  women  will  of  their  own  mind 
break  the  laws  of  the  empire,  brave  the  fierce 
emperor's  wrath,  excite  the  cupidity  of  the  spy, 
court  horrible  deaths  rather  than  forego  the  priv- 
ilege of  their  daily  or  weekly  Eucharist. 

Nay,  my  brethren,  we  are  asked  too  much. 
The  language  and  practice  of  Apostles  and  Saints 
refuses  to  bend  to  this  interpretation ;  and  why 
should  it  ?  Why  must  we  believe  that  the  mind 
of  an  age  which  seems  singularly  wanting  in  that 
heroic  self  sacrifice  which  marked  those  first  days 
is  likely  to  discern  the  voice  of  the  Lord  more 
clearly  than  that  of  Sub-Apostolic  times  ? 

Why  must  we  believe  that  an  age  when  the 
Word  of  the  living  Lord  is  treated  by  large  num. 
bers  of  Christians  with  but  scant  reverence  is 
likely  to  possess  that  devout  insight  which  alone 
can  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  the  Church?  Nay, 
we  see  no  reason  for  reversing  the  estimate  of 
the  first  two  centuries  by  that  of  the  nineteenth. 


1 82  GRACE  AND    THE 

II.  Let  us  now  look  at  the  second  answer  that 
is  made.  Grace  is  external  to  us,  but  we  receive  it 
immediately  without  the  interposition  of  means. 

This,  if  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  Word 
of  God  is  much  more  complete  than  the  first.  It 
acknowledges  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  power  external  to  the  soul ;  it  confesses  that 
only  through  that  grace  can  we  hope  to  see  the 
Father.  Its  main  objection  to  the  sacramental 
system  is  that  grace  is  conferred  through  means. 
"  The  union  and  contact  between  Christ  and 
His  people,"  it  asserts,  "is  immediate,  spiritual; 
nothing  is  to  be  between  " — not  the  most  vener- 
able and  Apostolic  organization,  not  the  most 
precious  of  Christ-given  ordinances."  "^ 

Now  if  this  were  seriously  maintained,  spiritual 
growth  would  be  impossible. 

If  nothing  is  to  be  between  the  soul  and  Christ, 
then  a  mother's  instruction,  the  words  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  voice  of  the  preacher,  must  be  set 
aside.  A  logical  carrying  out  of  the  principle  is 
impossible.  But  not  only  is  the  principle  im- 
practicable, but  its  most  serious  objection  lies 
here:  that  it  gives  no  opportunity  to  man  for  the 
exercise  of  his  free-will ;  there  is  never  any  definite 
time  when  he  is  to  exercise  his  choice.  If  noth- 
ing is  to  be  between  God  and  the  soul,  then  how 

*  "  Thoughts  on  Christian  Sanctity,"  II.  C,  G.  Moule,  p.  109. 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  183 

can  man  know  when  any  appeal  is  made  to  him? 
This  leads  of  necessity  to  the  idea  that  we  are 
verily  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter  not  in 
the  sense  of  St.  Paul,  but  in  the  sense  of  Calvin. 
Again,  there  is  no  external  sign  of  God's  election 
left  to  the  individual,  and  place  is  made  for  those 
terrible  subjective  struggles  through  which  some 
have  lost  their  reason.  The  Church's  teaching 
with  regard  to  Infant  Baptism,  on  the  contrary, 
secures  the  impartiality  of  God's  love,  widens 
the  number  of  the  elect,  stirs  men  to  make  the 
most  of  their  possession,  excites  the  imagination, 
influences  the  will.  We  know  when  God  touched 
us — we  are  not  left  a  prey  to  the  terrors  or 
dreams  of  our  emotions.  Our  Baptismal  Regis- 
ter declares  that  Christ  has  claimed  us  for  His 
•own  and  Hves  within  us.  This  second  answer, 
taken  logically,  results  in  that  Calvinism  which 
many  leading  Presbyterians  in  this  country  are 
endeavoring  to  discard  from  their  confession  of 
faith. 

III.  We  turn  now  to  the  third  answer,  that 
which  the  Church  gives.  I  need  not  occupy  your 
time  with  statements  as  to  her  behef.  "  I  believe 
one  Baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins  "  is  her  char- 
ter.  It  has  been  variously  expanded,  but  with  one 
consistent  principle  throughout— viz.,  that  grace 
is  ordinarily  conferred  through  the  sacraments. 
The  Anglican   branch    of   the   Catholic    Church 


1 84  GRACE  AND    THE 

speaks  clearly:  Sacraments  are  "means  of  grace 
given  unto  us  " — efficacia  signa  graticB — ''signs  of 
grace  which  effect  something  " — "  through  which 
God  works  invisibly  in  us,  not  only  quickening 
but  strengthening  faith."  "  In  such  as  worthily 
receive  them  they  have  a  wholesome  effect  or 
operation." 

We  claim  three  grounds  in  justification  of  this 
judgment  of  the  Catholic  Church: — (i)  It  is  rea- 
sonable ;  (2)  It  is  more  in  harmony  with  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  Christianity;  and  (3)  It  is  deeply 
religious. 

(i)  It  is  reasonable.  If  there  is  one  fact  more 
than  another  which  modern  thought  is  fond  of 
asserting  it  is  the  solidarity  of  the  race. 

That  phrase  means  briefly  that  no  man  liveth 
to  himself  and  dieth  to  himself,  but  that  the  in- 
dividual is  placed  in  such  a  dependence  upon  the 
race  that  to  live  apart  from  it  is  to  stagnate. 
Our  natural  life  is  sacramental  from  beginning 
to  end.  As  our  physical  existence  depends  for 
its  growth  on  the  life  which  is  given  through  ani- 
mal or  vegetable  food,  so  our  mental  life  upon 
the  words  or  writings  of  others.  We  cannot  live 
without  the  mediation  of  others.  All  the  objec- 
tions commonly  brought  against  the  sacramental 
system  of  spiritual  power  may  be  brought  against 
the  sacramental  system  of  natural  power.  For 
example  one  objection  is,  "  Means  will  surely  be 


SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM,  185 

exalted  into  ends,"  and  so  great  was  this  danger 
with  the  Israelites  that  they  were  given  forty  years 
in  the  terrible  Wilderness  to  learn  that  man  does 
not  *'  live  by  bread  alone."  Men  have  abused  the 
sacramental  system  of  nature  in  precisely  the 
direction  it  was  feared  they  might,  and  yet  God 
has  not  abandoned  it.  He  is  forever  teaching 
us  that  there  is  no  antithesis  such  as  we  suppose 
between  the  spiritual  and  natural.  As  man's 
physical  and  mental  natures  are  being  built  up 
through  outward  means,  it  is  not  unlikely,  nay,  it 
is  probable,  the  same  method  will  be  adopted 
with  our  spiritual  nature. 

And  as  it  is  reasonable,  so  (2)  it  is  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of  God's  rev- 
elation. 

Adam  and  Eve  are  to  grow  to  their  full  de- 
velopment by  the  Tree  of  Life ;  the  Patriarchs 
find  God's  presence  in  particular  places;  the  Tab- 
ernacle and  Temple  with  their  ceremonies,  the 
Festivals  with  their  services,  alike  emphasize  the 
respect  God  has  to  outward  means.  Forms  of 
color,  waves  of  sound,  actual  material  substances, 
are  all  used  to  convey  certain  blessings  to  man. 
And  the  sum  of  sacramental  religion  is  reached 
in  the  Incarnation — when  the  Eternal  Word 
takes  not  only  the  spirit  and  mind,  but  the  human 
substance  of  the  flesh  of  man,  into  God.  That 
is  the  great  sacrament.     And  as  it  presupposes 


1 86  GRACE  AND    THE 

a  sacramental  past,  so  it  prophecies  a  sacra- 
mental future.  Our  Lord  would  seem  to  have 
taken  pains  to  show  us  this.  In  His  own  heal- 
ings of  the  bodies  of  men,  which  St.  John  tells  us 
were  signs  of  His  spiritual  healing,  He  constantly 
chooses  outward  means.  Now  it  is  water — now 
clay — now  His  garment — now  His  hand.  And 
St.  Luke  suggests  that  the  hand  was  His  com- 
mon method  of  healing.  "  When  the  sun  was 
setting,  all  they  that  had  any  sick  with  divers 
diseases  brought  them  unto  Him,  and  He  laid 
His  hands  on  every  one  of  them."  In  only  five 
out  of  twenty-two  recorded  cases  does  He  dis- 
pense with  material  means.  It  is  only  in  accord, 
then,  with  His  usual  method  of  working  when  He 
"  sanctifies  water  to  the  mystical  washing  away 
of  sin,"  and  consecrates  bread  and  wine  to  be 
the  means  whereby  we  receive  His  Body  and  His 
Blood. 

As  it  is  reasonable,  as  it  is  in  harmony  with 
the  known  methods  of  our  Lord's  working,  so  (3) 
it  is  deeply  reHgious. 

May  I  very  briefly  suggest  three  points  which 
will  illustrate  this: 

(i)  It  appeals  to  the  highest  faith. 

'*  The  Lord's  Supper,"  writes  the  Wesleyan 
scholar  Dr.  Beet,*  "  affords  the  severest  test  of  our 
faith  that  Christ  is  actually  and  supernaturally 
*  Symposium  on  the  Lord's  Supper. 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  1S7 

present  and  active  among  His  people.  It  requires 
little  or  no  faith  in  God  to  believe  that  a  preached 
word  may  do  good,  for  the  connection  between 
the  means  and  the  end  is  evident.  But  to  ex- 
pect spiritual  grace  from  material  bread  and  wine 
implies  an  acknowledgment  of  utter  inability  to 
obtain  by  our  own  intelligence  the  nourishment 
we  require  and  a  reliance  upon  the  superhuman 
presence  and  power,  and  the  faithfulness  of  Him 
who  fed  the  five  thousand,  made  water  into  wine 
and  has  promised  to  supply  all  His  people's  need 
by  His  own  presence  in  their  hearts  to  the  end 
of  time." 

(2)  It  stimulates. 

It  not  only  calls  for  faith — arouses  it — but  helps 
it :  we  are  constantly  being  stimulated  to  higher 
purposes  by  the  sacraments.  For  they  are,  as 
Hooker  "^  tells  us,  marks  whereby  we  know  when 
God  doth  impart  the  vital  or  saving  grace  of  Christ 
unto  all  that  are  capable  thereof.  ''  Since  God  is 
invisible,  therefore  when  it  seemeth  good  in  the 
eyes  of  His  heavenly  wisdom  that  men  for  some 
special  intent  and  purpose  should  take  notice  of 
His  glorious  Presence,  He  giveth  them  some  plain 
and  sensible  token  whereby  to  know  what  they 
cannot  see.  Christ  and  His  Holy  Spirit,  with  all 
their  blessed  effects,  though  entering  into  the  soul 
of  man,  we  are  not  able  to  apprehend  or  express 
**■  Hooker,  v.,  Ivii.  3. 


1 88  GRACE  AND    THE 

how,  notwithstanding  give  notice  of  the  times 
when  they  use  to  make  their  access  because  it 
pleaseth  Almighty  God  to  communicate  by  sen- 
sible means  those  blessings  which  are  incompre- 
hensible." 

(3)  It  teaches  charity  as  none  other  can. 
There   is   indeed   something   touching   in   the 

drawing  out  of  men's  sympathies  one  toward 
another  in  the  solemn  meeting  together  and 
remembering  the  Lord  in  the  way  He  has  ap- 
pointed ;  but  it  amounts  to  little  more  than  a  sen- 
timent, an  emotion.  But  the  realization  that  the 
man  who  kneels  beside  me  is  receiving  the  nature 
of  Christ  not  only  sheds  a  glow  about  his  life,  but 
makes  one  feel  that  our  union  is  not  based  on  the 
recollection  of  a  common  mercy,  unspeakable  as 
it  is,  but  on  the  common  possession  of  a  divine 
life. 

(4)  Lastly,  this  system  preaches  hope  as  none 
other  can. 

Since  through  the  sacraments  we  are  partakers 
of  the  Divine  nature,  since  by  them  Christ  in- 
dwells us  and  we  Him,  then  there  is  no  height  to 
which  we  may  not  climb,  no  path  of  holiness  too 
difficult.  We  at  once  dismiss  the  mere  worldly 
standard  of  morality  as  entirely  too  low  for  such 
a  divine  power  and  strength  as  that  with  which 
we  are  gifted.  We  welcome  every  passage  of 
that  high  standard  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 


SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.  189 

not  only  as  possibilities  for  the  child  of  the  saint, 
but  for  the  child  of  the  unclean  ;  not  only  for  the 
child  of  the  Fifth  Avenue,  but  for  the  child  of 
the  Bowery. 

And  we  are  confident  that  this  world  of  ours, 
scarred  with  its  battlefields,  darkened  with  its 
ignorance  and  vice,  defiled  with  the  unceasing 
impurities  of  men,  is  yet  crowned  with  a  halo  of 
light,  bathed  in  an  atmosphere  of  holiness,  for 
upon  it  stands  the  form  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and 
radiating  from  Him  these  streams  of  never-ceas- 
ing grace. 


It  seems  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  the 
Church  Club  is  not  responsible  for  any  individual 
opinions  on  points,  not  ruled  by  the  Church, 
which,  the  learned  theologians  who  have  been 
good  enough  to  lecture  under  its  auspices,  may 
have  expressed. 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


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